UEFA promised on Wednesday to invest one billion euros to develop women’s football by 2030, targeting both grassroots practice, high-level professionalization and stadium attendance.
Called “Unstoppable”, this program is the second dedicated to female footballers after a first strategy announced in 2019 and which accompanied growth in income, players and audiences across the continent.
To continue this momentum, the European body identifies training needs — “quality players, coaches and referees in sufficient numbers” –, professionalization of leagues and commercial development of competitions.
It also targets the rise of a “supporter culture”, to “translate peak attendance and audience numbers into higher figures over the entire season”, an essential project to fill stadiums more regularly. .
The body undertakes to invest in this plan “one billion euros from competition revenues” and its own reserves “in women’s football initiatives”, to support the projects of national federations for grassroots football and to transform its competitions.
The most prestigious of them for clubs, the Women’s Champions League, will also inaugurate in 2025/2026 a new formula modeled on that of the Men’s Champions League in force this season, with a mini-championship of 18 teams replacing the group stage.
Like the Europa League and the Conference League, the European body will also launch “a second women’s interclub competition” next season, just after the Women’s Euro hosted by Switzerland from July 2 to 27, 2025.
By 2030, UEFA aims for “six fully professional championships and 5,000 professional players on the continent”, compared to respectively three championships and 3,049 pro players today, and wants to make football “the most popular team sport among women and girls in all European countries.
