Malta to host top UEFA meetings in September 2015

UEFA_logo_2012Following the successful organisation of the UEFA Under-17 Championship last May, Malta has been entrusted with the hosting of a meeting of UEFA’s Top Executive Programme (TEP) and a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in September 2015.

The Top Executive Programme brings together the member associations’ top executives and these meetings lead to extremly important decisions such as when UEFA decided to expand the EURO final round from sixteen to twenty-four countries, the centralisation of the media rights of national team qualification matches and the decision to stage the UEFA EURO 2020 final tournament in various major cities throughout Europe, rather than a tournament in one or two host countries.

While addressing the Council of the Malta Football Association, MFA President Norman Darmanin Demajo read extracts from letters by UEFA head of national team competitions Lance Kelly and UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino who were both impressed with how the Malta Football Association managed to attract a total of 42,000 spectators for the tournament – an average of 2,800 per game. Both praised the Malta FA for the organisation of the tournament.

Infantino also said thanked the Gozo FA in particular, saying that having matches staged in Gozo was an unforgettable experience with teams had to take the ferry for the games.

It was during a meeting which was held in Lisbon later in May that UEFA President Michel Platini informed Darmanin Demajo about the decision to hold the two meetings in Malta in September 2015.

The last UEFA Executive Committee meeting to be held in Malta was in January 2010.