A NEW EUROPEAN ADVENTURE
In quest of a cleaner game
As the umbrella organization of
European national football associations,
UEFA is responsible for football in Europe,
Under its motto "We care about football",
UEFA organizes its European competi
tions for national respresentative teams
(such as the European Football
Championship) and club competitions
(such as the UEFA CFIAMPIONS
LEAGUE). In order to ensure that these
competitions run smoothly, work also has
to take place behind the scenes; indeed,
football today lives not only by events on
the field, but also by happenings off the
pitch. In conjunction with the national
associations, UEFA, with professional
vision and vigour, is seeking to promote
the sound development of football, both
at the top and down to the grassroots,
and to protect our sport from harmful inf
luences.
UEFA's considerations also concern you,
the spectators, as it is our wish to offer
you attractive, exciting and clean football.
We are aware that, without its passionate
supporters such as yourselves, football
could not survive. We also owe it to you
to ensure that the rules of the game and
its environment are strictly applied. At the
same time, however, we implore you to
respect our rules of sportsmanship too.
We alle share responsibility for our game,
and for our part, we, the organizers, also
want to offer you a clean product behind
the scenes, a product worthy of the price
you pay to watch a match.
In this respect, the decision of UEFA's
disciplinary bodies to exclude Dynamo
Kiev from the present UEFA CFIAMPIONS
LEAGUE for attempted bribery of the refe
ree by the club's officials before their first
group match against Panathinaikos is
understandable. As a result, the
Committee for the UEFA Club
Competitions has replaced the Ukrainian
club with their immediate opponents in the
prliminary round, BK Aalborg, in order to
maintain the balance in all four groups in
this season's competition. We therefore
extend a very warm welcome to the
Danish club in the 1995/96 UEFA CHAM
PIONS LEAGUE!
Lennart Johansson
President of UEFA
