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Union of European Clubs presents

Fair share, fair game.

UEC Football Forum 2026Fourth annual edition · Brussels

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Date
Tuesday 17 November 2026
Time
11:00 to 14:30 CET
Venue
Radisson Collection Hotel, Grand PlaceBrussels, Belgium
Registration closes
Friday 16 October 2026

A fairer future for European football

Amid growing scrutiny of football governance, the UEC Football Forum 2026 brings together clubs, leagues, EU institutions and key stakeholders from more than 30 countries to discuss governance, representation and reform.

Under the theme “Fair share, fair game.”, the Forum provides a platform for meaningful dialogue on the future of European football, advancing UEC's commitment to a fairer, more transparent and representative game.

The stage and audience at the UEC Football Forum 2024 A panel discussion on stage at the UEC Football Forum 2024 Delegates listening at the UEC Football Forum 2024

The programme

More speakers to be announced.

  1. Registration and coffee

  2. Welcome

    • Host

      Pien Meulensteen

      Presenter and Commentator

      Sky Sports

  3. Opening session

    • Opening address

      Ovidiu Costeșin

      President

      Union of European Clubs

      General Director, Universitatea Craiova

    • Video message

      Carolina Morace

      Member

      European Parliament

  4. Panel 1

    • Moderator

      Nick Ames

      European Sports Correspondent

      The Guardian

    • Miguel Maduro

      Former Advocate General

      Court of Justice of the EU

    • Gareth Farrelly

      CEO

      Union of European Clubs

    • Jan Zglinski

      Associate Professor of Law

      London School of Economics

    • More panellists to be announced soon

  5. Coffee break

  6. Panel 2

    Fair game

    Reforming the governance of international football

    • Moderator

      Miguel Delaney

      Chief Football Writer

      The Independent

    • Alex Phillips

      Former Head of Governance and Compliance

      UEFA

    • Oke Göttlich

      President

      FC St. Pauli

    • Moya Dodd

      Former Member

      FIFA Council and AFC Executive Committee

    • More panellists to be announced soon

  7. Panel 3

    Fair share

    Redistribution, solidarity and competitive balance

    • Moderator

      Ali Walker

      Editor

      POLITICO Europe

    • Alex Muzio

      President

      Union Saint-Gilloise

    • Oke Göttlich

      President

      FC St. Pauli

    • Alberto Colombo

      Managing Director and General Secretary

      European Leagues

    • Raffaele Poli

      Co-founder and Head

      CIES Football Observatory

    • More panellists to be announced soon

  8. Closing statement

    • Javier Tebas

      President

      LaLiga

  9. Lunch and networking

Voices for a fairer game

  • Portrait of Alberto Colombo

    Managing Director and General Secretary

    European Leagues

  • Portrait of Ovidiu Costeșin

    President

    Union of European Clubs

    General Director, Universitatea Craiova

  • Portrait of Moya Dodd

    Former Member

    FIFA Council and AFC Executive Committee

  • Portrait of Gareth Farrelly

    CEO

    Union of European Clubs

    Former international footballer, lawyer and arbitrator

  • Portrait of Oke Göttlich

    President

    FC St. Pauli

  • Portrait of Miguel Maduro

    Former Advocate General

    Court of Justice of the EU

  • Portrait of Carolina Morace

    Member

    European Parliament

  • Portrait of Alex Muzio

    President

    Union Saint-Gilloise

  • Portrait of Alex Phillips

    Former Head of Governance and Compliance

    UEFA

  • Portrait of Raffaele Poli

    Co-founder and Head

    CIES Football Observatory

  • Portrait of Javier Tebas

    President

    LaLiga

  • Portrait of Jan Zglinski

    Associate Professor of Law

    London School of Economics

  • Portrait of Pien MeulensteenHost

    Presenter and Commentator

    Sky Sports

  • Portrait of Nick AmesModerator

    European Sports Correspondent

    The Guardian

  • Portrait of Miguel DelaneyModerator

    Chief Football Writer

    The Independent

  • Portrait of Ali WalkerModerator

    Editor

    POLITICO Europe

Panel 3 · Fair share · 13:25 CET

Alberto Colombo

Managing Director and General Secretary, European Leagues

Alberto Colombo has led European Leagues since June 2025. The association brings together 53 professional leagues and associations of clubs from 34 countries, representing more than 1,300 clubs. He has worked there for nearly two decades, most recently as Deputy General Secretary, covering media rights, EU sports policy and sports integrity. European Leagues has taken FIFA’s international match calendar to the European Commission. Colombo names the growing financial and sporting polarisation of the game among the main threats it faces.

Opening address · 11:05 CET

Ovidiu Costeșin

President, Union of European Clubs
General Director, Universitatea Craiova

Ovidiu Costeșin was elected President of the Union of European Clubs in July 2026, the second person to hold the role. He joined Universitatea Craiova as sporting director in 2017, after working on the Romania national team’s staff, and now runs the club as general director. In 2025–26 Craiova won the Romanian league and cup double. He opens the Forum. “Now more than ever,” he says, “football needs governance that is fair, transparent and consistent.”

Panel 2 · Fair game · 12:20 CET

Moya Dodd

Former member, FIFA Council and AFC Executive Committee

Moya Dodd is a former vice-captain of the Matildas, Australia’s national women’s team, and played at FIFA’s first women’s tournament in 1988. She went on to serve as Vice-President of the Asian Football Confederation and on FIFA’s Executive Committee, which later became the FIFA Council. After FIFA’s 2015 corruption crisis, she pushed for the reforms that now reserve at least one Council seat for a woman from every confederation. A competition lawyer and partner at Gilbert + Tobin, she also co-chairs Common Goal.

Panel 1 · 11:20 CET

Gareth Farrelly

CEO, Union of European Clubs

Gareth Farrelly has been CEO of the Union of European Clubs since 2024. He played for Aston Villa, Everton and Bolton and won six caps for the Republic of Ireland. After his playing career he qualified as a solicitor, served as an arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and on the FA’s Judicial Panel, and was a Global Sports Fellow at Harvard, researching the politics of European football. On Panel 1 he sets out the UEC’s case for holding football’s governing bodies to account under EU law.

Panel 2 · Fair game · 12:20 CET
Panel 3 · Fair share · 13:25 CET

Oke Göttlich

President, FC St. Pauli
Vice-President, DFL

Oke Göttlich has been president of FC St. Pauli since 2014 and is a vice-president of the DFL, the German Football League. A former sports journalist and music entrepreneur, he opposed the DFL’s 2023 plan to sell a stake to private equity, warning it would mainly strengthen the league’s top clubs. Under him, more than 22,000 fans have bought into the club’s stadium through a cooperative. In September 2026, St. Pauli became the first German professional club to join the UEC.

Panel 1 · 11:20 CET

Miguel Poiares Maduro

Former Advocate General, Court of Justice of the EU
Dean, Católica Global School of Law

Miguel Poiares Maduro was Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the EU from 2003 to 2009 and later a minister in Portugal’s government. He chaired FIFA’s Governance Committee from 2016 until 2017, when FIFA removed him after his committee barred Russia’s deputy prime minister from the FIFA Council. Now Dean of Católica Global School of Law in Lisbon, he told last year’s Forum that the way European competitions are run risks breaching EU competition law.

Video message · Opening session

Carolina Morace

Member of the European Parliament

Carolina Morace scored 105 goals in 153 games for Italy and was Serie A’s top scorer for 11 seasons in a row. In 1999 she became the first woman to coach a professional men’s team, at Viterbese, and went on to manage the Italy and Canada women’s teams and AC Milan Women. A lawyer, she was elected to the European Parliament in 2024 and sits on its women’s rights and gender equality committee. She joins the Forum by video message.

Panel 3 · Fair share · 13:25 CET

Alex Muzio

President, Union Saint-Gilloise

Alex Muzio has led Union Saint-Gilloise since 2018. Union have since returned to the top flight, won the 2024–25 Belgian title, their first since 1935, and played in the Champions League. Muzio was the UEC’s first president, from 2024 to 2026, and still sits on its Executive Board. At last year’s Forum he called the UEC’s Player Development Reward essential to a fairer game.

Panel 2 · Fair game · 12:20 CET

Alex Phillips

Former Secretary General, FIFPRO
Former Head of Governance and Compliance, UEFA

Alex Phillips spent more than a decade at UEFA, where he helped create the original Financial Fair Play concept and finished as Head of Governance and Compliance. He has also administered FIFA’s World Football Remission Fund, the $201m recovered after the 2015 corruption cases, and was Secretary General of FIFPRO, the global players’ union, from 2025 to 2026. He argues that executive presidents and autocratic structures sit at the root of football’s governance problems.

Panel 3 · Fair share · 13:25 CET

Raffaele Poli

Co-founder and Head, CIES Football Observatory

Raffaele Poli co-founded the CIES Football Observatory in 2005 and leads it today. Part of the International Centre for Sports Studies in Neuchâtel, the Observatory is a leading source of data on football’s player and transfer markets. Its research has shown how money and talent concentrate in a small elite of clubs, and how competitive imbalance has grown across Europe’s leagues. Poli holds a PhD in human sciences and lectures at the University of Neuchâtel. On Panel 3 he sets out what the data says about redistribution and competitive balance.

Closing statement · 14:10 CET

Javier Tebas

President, LaLiga

Javier Tebas has led LaLiga since 2013 and is one of the most outspoken voices on how European football is run. A lawyer by training and a former president of SD Huesca, he built LaLiga’s economic control system, which caps what each club can spend on its squad, and oversaw the move to selling broadcast rights collectively. He opposes the Super League and what he calls the “financial doping” of state-funded clubs. He returns to close the Forum, a year after telling the 2025 edition that competitive domestic leagues are football’s greatest asset.

Panel 1 · 11:20 CET

Jan Zglinski

Associate Professor of Law, London School of Economics

Jan Zglinski is Associate Professor of Law at the London School of Economics, specialising in EU law and sports law. He has written widely on how EU law applies to football, from the Super League case to the UK’s Independent Football Regulator, and has acted as an expert for the UEC and FIFPRO. He also sits on the legal advisory board of FairSquare’s Reboot FIFA campaign.

Host · Welcome · 11:00 CET

Pien Meulensteen

Presenter and Commentator, Sky Sports

Pien Meulensteen is a presenter and commentator for Sky Sports, where in 2023 she became the first woman to commentate a live Premier League match on the channel. Born in the Netherlands and raised in England, she has called games for the BBC at the 2022 World Cup and for ITV at Euro 2024, and joined Fox Sports’ studio team for the 2026 World Cup. She hosts the Forum.

Moderator · Panel 1 · 11:20 CET

Nick Ames

European Sports Correspondent, The Guardian

Nick Ames is The Guardian’s European sports correspondent. He has reported on football well beyond the big leagues: Kosovo, which he has covered since 2014, FC Sheriff in Transnistria, and the rebuilding of Ukrainian football after Russia’s 2022 invasion, which he calls his proudest work. Before joining The Guardian he worked in Arsenal’s club media and wrote for ESPN FC. He moderates Panel 1.

Moderator · Panel 2 · Fair game · 12:20 CET

Miguel Delaney

Chief Football Writer, The Independent

Miguel Delaney has been Chief Football Writer at The Independent since 2017 and has covered five World Cups and more than 15 Champions League finals. His book States of Play: How Sportswashing Took Over Football won Football Book of the Year at the 2025 British Sports Book Awards. The Football Supporters’ Association named him its Football Writer of the Year in 2025. He moderates the panel on reforming how international football is governed.

Moderator · Panel 3 · Fair share · 13:25 CET

Ali Walker

Editor, POLITICO Europe

Ali Walker is an editor at POLITICO Europe in Brussels, where he has worked since 2016, including as editor of its global breaking news team. He also writes on football, including how Ukraine’s war effort reaches the Champions League. He moderates Panel 3.

At the heart of Brussels

Venue
Radisson Collection Hotel, Grand PlaceRue du Fossé aux Loups 47, 1000 Brussels
Date
Tuesday 17 November 2026
Public Forum
11:00 to 14:30 CET
City
Brussels, Belgium
Get directions(opens in a new tab)
A panel on stage at a previous UEC Forum

Brussels · Grand Place

17.11.2026

Be part of the future of European football

Join clubs, leagues, EU institutions and other football stakeholders in Brussels for the UEC Football Forum 2026. Share your thoughts on governance, representation and meaningful reform.

  • 17 November 2026
  • Brussels
  • Free registration
Register for the Forum From a UEC member club? Register on the member page

Registration is free and closes on Friday 16 October 2026.