Gathering Europe in Football: UEFA, the Development of European Football and the Cold War (1949–1961)

Abstract

At a meeting in Basel on 15 June 1954, 25 of Europe’s national football associations agreed to form a representative body for European football, a decision which would, four months later, give rise to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Five years later, the new body had exceeded the expectations of most of its founders and had become one of the most important actors in European football. Furthermore, it appeared as the sole pan-European body as other “European organizations” – created at the same period – in other fields never crossed the Iron Curtain and were mainly composed by Western Bloc or neutral countries. This paper – which summarizes some of the key arguments examined in the book Creating a United Europe of Football (2020) – looks back at UEFA’s formation and early development. In doing so, it examines the issues of why UEFA developed so quickly, even though conditions for this development were not initially conducive, and how UEFA managed to overcome Cold War divisions to become a truly pan-European body. The article brings together information from original archive documents (mainly from UEFA’s and FIFA’s Documentation Centres, but also from national football association archives), French press reports (mostly from L’Equipe and France Football) and interviews with three leading figures in European football during the 1950 s.