The European Club Association (ECA) Executive Committee held its final meeting of 2024 today at Campus de Paris Saint-Germain, addressing current major priorities for European and International club football.
The meeting provided the opportunity for each of the ECA ExCo Workstream Leads (covering Men’s, Women’s, Youth Football, Legal and Regulatory, Commercial and Innovation, Governance and Development, Sustainability, and Finance) to outline the concrete action plans arising from ECA’s recent Working Group week in Vienna and Geneva, also covering ECA’s second major Financial Sustainability Conference which took place this week. ECA’s Working Groups will now be expanded to incorporate representatives from new member clubs, including the addition of a ninth Workstream on Fan Matters.
Topics discussed at today’s meeting included the sporting and commercial progress of the UEFA Men’s Club Competitions (UMCC) 2024-27, the strategy for the post-27 cycles, the UEFA Women’s Club Competitions (UWCC) 2025-30 and the FIFA Club World Cup.
The ExCo provided its guidance on key stakeholder consultations and initiatives on topics ranging across player welfare, multi-club ownership, the transfer system, environmental sustainability and climate change, off the back of an ECA initiative recently launched at COP29 called the Football Clubs Alliance for Climate, which calls to action the club football community’s responsibility to address environmental challenges.
The ECA Executive Leadership Programme in partnership with Harvard Business School has now been formally launched, with applications invited from senior leaders from ECA’s membership and European football stakeholders to take part in this bespoke programme, to develop football leadership across the continent.
