The sight of happy children running during a recently held national Under 7 Fun Festival, all striving to kick the ball into the net and celebrating a goal like one of their football stars, captured the essence of football. It is all about passion and fun, children falling in love with the game and pursuing their dreams.
Indeed, part of the magic of football is that you can come from a small country or a humble club in the lowest of leagues and progress through the ranks to compete in elite competitions on the international stage.
From Erling Haaland starting from the reserve team of Bryne in Norway, to Cristiano Ronaldo playing in a local team in his home town of Funchal in Madeira to Virgil van Dijk rising from a small town in the Netherlands to later help Liverpool win the Champions League, there are countless examples of young players rising from grassroots football to grace the European continental leagues.
These players were given a chance to dream big thanks to the investment and nurturing of talent in community grassroots football. This is the European sports model in action: a pyramid structure from amateur to elite level games that is rooted in open competitions and the principle of financial redistribution.
Under this model, the success of national and club competitions generates direct support for grassroots and youth football across Europe. If it were not for the youth tournaments that are organised and funded this way, for example, we would not continue to cultivate what have been, and surely will be in the future, some of the greatest players to ever play our game.
From a local perspective, the solidarity mechanisms established by UEFA have resulted in significant financial support flowing to national football associations such as the Malta FA, which has helped promote the development of local football in the broadest sense.
More than 50 per cent of the Malta FA’s budget derives from UEFA funding, which, in turn, is mostly based on proceeds from both club and national team competitions.
In July, Malta will host the 2023 UEFA Under 19 Championship. It is testament to UEFA’s solidarity principle that a small country like Malta has been entrusted with the organisation of this prestigious event which will showcase Europe’s rising stars, a tournament that will serve as a catalyst for our children and youths to persevere in chasing their football dreams.
Every country in Europe is having its moment, its people beaming with pride, as a player lifts a trophy, their shoulders draped in their country’s flag. The European sports model creates these magical moments – cultural memories shared by young and old.
In July, Malta will host the 2023 UEFA Under 19 Championship, a testament to UEFA’s solidarity principle- Bjorn Vassallo
As leaders of national football associations, we see this as one of our most important missions: protect this European sports model that has united us for decades. Our principle is that football should exist for the collective good and it is this principle that has brought Europeans together around a shared love of the game underpinned by sporting merit.
Yet, across the continent, there are efforts to tarnish the fundamental principles that govern our beautiful game. Change and innovation can be positive forces and everyone agrees we must continue to evolve the game but only in a way that safeguards meritocracy and open access to the game.
When change stems from the wrong motives, they threaten to erode what we cherish so dearly: the very system that has brought equity to Europe’s football family.
We must not create a system where a few powerful clubs, only interested in the pursuit of their own profit, create a competition without open access and based upon sporting merit and solidarity.
Semi-closed competitions, like the previously proposed European Super League, would only widen the gulf between the haves and have nots in football.
European football has achieved a delicate balance between community and social values and economic resources and structures. This balance needs constant attention and adjustment. European football recognises that and consultation is constantly open to ensure football moves in the right direction, especially by improving sustainability in football and protect its long-term future.
The European sports model, a noble idea enshrined in the EU treaty, can be hard to define because it embraces so many levels of so many sports from village playing fields to elite events, in a balance subject to regular refinement.
Its adversary, on the other hand, is easy to spot: a few clubs, fuelled by ego and money, threatening to destroy the system in which they have also prospered.
Bjorn Vassallo is the president of the Malta Football Association.