UEFA President's message of support for EUROPEADA

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Dear President Vincze,

Dear members of the Presidium of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN),

Dear members of the EUROPEADA organising committee,

With the opening of the EUROPEADA 2022 in St.Kanzian/Škocjan am Klopeiner See in Carinthia/Koroška, Austria fast approaching, I wanted to send a message of support from UEFA.

As you may recall from our meeting in May, I have a grandmother who comes from Austria’s Slovenian minority. It therefore gives me great pleasure to see that FUEN is organising EUROPEADA 2022 in cooperation with the Slovenian Sports Association, the Council of Carinthian Slovenes, the province of Carinthia and the Republic of Slovenia.

As the governing body of football in Europe, UEFA is delighted to see the continued and growing success of the European Football Championship of the autochthonous national minorities. We wish you every success for the event taking place from 25 June to 3 July and of course we wish the players, officials and fans an enjoyable tournament.

At UEFA, we share a deep common commitment with FUEN to the motto you have chosen for the tournament "TOGETHER UNIQUE / SKUPNO ENKRATNI / GEMEINSAM EINZIGARTIG". As discussed at our meeting in May of this year, UEFA looks forward to further engaging with organisations such as FUEN to advance our common objectives related equality, diversity and inclusion.

We are encouraged to see how FUEN is harnessing the power of football, and in the case of EUROPEADA a major football event, not only as a demonstration of fair competition, respect and sporting enthusiasm, but also as a platform to showcase and promote the values and concerns of the autochthonous national minorities.

This is the same fundamental view that we take at UEFA: that major sports events are moments to build European unity and values and celebrate diversity, not just sports exhibitions for entertainment.

UEFA and FUEN are using football and major sport events as a way to connect people of different backgrounds, nationalities, languages, ethnicities, etc. From our conversations and activities, it is also clear that both of our organisations are taking a strong stand against hate speech, xenophobia and racism, and are working on involving other entities in this cause. For example, I am pleased to inform you that the central UEFA Respect campaign at this summer’s Women’s European Championships in England will be a campaign against online hate speech.

We look forward to further engaging with you, and again wish you every success for the exciting tournament you are organising.

Yours sincerely,

Aleksander Čeferin

UEFA President

Photo: Marko Loibnegger (President of the Association Europeada), Loránt Vincze (FUEN president), Aleksander Čeferin (UEFA president)