Sorry for the post delay, but the lack of Internet makes it impossible to write sometimes. Since I’ve been slacking off lately, this post will cover both Thursday and Friday.
Thursday was our first full day at the HQs. We met with a lot of team members responsible for various aspects of UEFA daily operations. We have started the day by finishing up the general presentation about different UEFA departments and how they contribute to the overall projects undertaken by the organization. Later on we got a chance to speak to Mr. Paul Eriksen, an Executive Assistant to David Taylor, the CEO of UEFA Events S.A. – a subsidiary of UEFA fully owned by the company. UEFA Events is responsible (as the name could suggest) for all events organized under the UEFA umbrella, including those less known ones such as all youth competitions or futsal. In other words, UEFA Events is responsible for all the actions that generate revenues, and later on those revenues are distributed among clubs and federations by UEFA. Paul told us about the planning process behind all events, e.g. events such as Euro take as much as 9 years to prepare! Most of the time people do not realize that it takes hard work of hundreds of people for us to watch 90 minutes of football. While volunteers have a better understanding of all the hard work that goes into it, we often still do not realize that there are people responsible for issues such as sizes and location of sponsor advertising banners during a game, or something as simple as deciding what type of metal barriers should be standing in front of the volunteer center…
Mr. Olivier Gudet, responsible for program management, gave the second presentation of the day. A program, such as the Euro, consists of approximately 60 different projects, from accreditation and ticketing, through logistics, sponsor relations, hospitality or media services, to a thing we all know a lot about – volunteer management. With 700 staff members and close to 6,000 volunteers during Euro 2012, one realizes how much work some people have, simply to manage all those activities (not to mention making sure that they are done on time and within a certain budget). Mr. Gudet walked us through the process of planning, budgeting and risk management, all of which need to be done before the tournament organization even begins.
Our final presentation for the day was done my Mr. Marcello Alleca, Competitions Manager. Marcello told us about all the things it takes to actually organize a football match, from preparing the pitch to passing the ball to the referee for kick-off. I have to admit, his job seems super stressful. On one hand it’s great because you’re in the center of all the action, you get to see the players and whatnot, but to think that for the last 10 minutes before the game he has a schedule filled with an accuracy of 10-15 seconds is just crazy. Things such as letting players out through the tunnel or playing the national anthems need to be done precisely in the right time or the game will not start on time. Not to mention all the things one has to check – is the grass the proper length (for the Euro it was 32mm), that the uniforms meet the UEFA standards, that the kid who is supposed to carry the ball to the referee for kick-off will not start crying the very second it’s time for him to go… Like I said, it’s definitely an awesome job, but you might want to think twice before you apply for it 🙂
The final stop for the day was the Match Center – a command room, where a designated group of people watches all of the Champions League and Europa League games as they take place, to make sure that there are no technical issues, that the video quality is correct, etc. It kind of looks like NASA HQs with all the monitors. I’m not completely sure how those people manage to look at e.g. 12 games at the same time and still see something, but I suppose you just get used to it after a while. Still, definitely not the best way to watch football matches. Especially if you have to do your daily job in the morning and then watch games until late night for 4 days straight.
After work, Robert took us out for a nice dinner in a small town a little above Nyon called St. Cergue. We took a small vintage train up the hill and then walked around a little to explore that adorable ski resort. Then, for dinner we got a chance to try an original Swiss fondue, which absolutely rocked everyone’s world. The combination of Ementaller and Gruyere made everyone so full that we were barely able to walk back to the train station.
Isn’t St. Cergue the most adorable town you’ve ever seen?
Hungry people waiting for their food
Eating photos are always good, right? haha
Friday was the last day of our UEFA Experience, and was fully dedicated to looking back at the Euro, its challenges, successes and small glitches that came up during the tournament. Overall, everyone was really happy with the job Poland and Ukraine have done, especially since in some areas we did not only better than expected, but also better than in 2008, which is generally seen as a benchmark for those kinds of events. It was really great looking back and remembering all the fun things we did during the tournament. It was also really obvious that all eight of us took a lot of pride in being a part of this event. There is no doubt that every host city was different, sometimes when talking among ourselves we couldn’t believe how big the organizational differences were. But there is also no doubt that everyone gave Euro their heart and became a part of what was indeed “creating history together”.
After lunch (btw, if you want to work for UEFA you need to know they will feed you really well) we went on a more detailed tour of the UEFA campus – the two main buildings and the training grounds. The location of the office itself is simply spectacular, with as little as 20 meters to the lake and glass walls everywhere, which allow you to enjoy the stunning view from virtually every place in the building. We took a few pictures with the most desired trophies of the football words (the Champions League trophy, the Euro trophy and the Europa League trophy. While we did not get a chance to see Mr. Platinini’s office, we saw him during our lunch break and later, during the tour, could sit for a while in his seat in the Executive Committee’s room… kind of makes you feel special 😉 It was really hard to say goodbye to the office, even though we were only there for a week.
The main HQs
Inside the HQs
In Mr. Platini’s chair, feeling important 🙂
Everyone’s favorite photo 🙂
What every player wants
Well, this one is pretty self-explanatory
All 53 national associations
UEFA campus training grounds
Also, side note to all the Gdansk MOPS people – I got to chat with Carolina and Andrin for a few minutes and they asked me to say hi to all of you, so… “hi!” 🙂
Now, let’s take a quick look into the future. The next Euro is in 3.5 years and the organization process is starting in a few weeks. If you want to be a part of it, you can see all the available positions on the UEFA.com page. However, remember that the French are very unique, so you might want to speak their language 😉 But even if you don’t know French, it would definitely make sense to look for a position that you may be interested in, because UEFA really does seem like a great place to work, whether you love football or not. Especially if the city concept for Euro 2020 works out and (watch out, spoiler alert), there is a good chance it will. So get your CV in order and start looking, because you just never know 🙂
xx
A.
Lucky Vol in Geneva 