UEFA: the new Licensing Exchange Programme launched in San Marino

The new UEFA Licensing Exchange Programme has finally started. It involves ten national associations among the applicant FAs, from which the competent department in Nyon has selected five pairs of organisations – including the FSGC. The pairings were determined on the basis of similarities between the respective football movements, including the size of the country and the complexity of its football system. All this led to San Marino being paired in this new pathway with Andorra. The aim of the UEFA Licensing Exchange Programme is to give participants the opportunity to engage directly with their counterparts in the partner association, drawing on different best-practice approaches and alternative ways of managing licences, as well as the similarities and differences that could help improve their own national system. After numerous preliminary discussions, the time recently came for the actual double visit, allowing everyone to see the work being carried out first-hand. In this respect, the presence in San Marino from 27 to 29 November of the heads of the Andorran licensing system, as well as UEFA Club Licensing Head Ales Zavrl, took on even greater significance. The entire project launched by UEFA took its first steps on the Titan, as this was not only the first visit of the pair, but the very first visit of the whole Europe-wide initiative. Alongside Zavrl, David Peradalta Negre (UEFA Club Licensing expert) and Andrea Vidal Santin (Licensing Manager at the Andorran FA) also travelled to San Marino. The guests, accompanied throughout by Paolo Rondelli and Andrea Zoppis (Licensing Manager and Deputy Licensing Manager for the FSGC respectively), also met the top officials of the San Marino FA – President Tura and General Secretary Zafferani – as well as members of the Licensing Committee and sector experts involved in the San Marino FA licensing system. A delegation of San Marino clubs, together with their representatives, also had the chance to exchange views with the visitors. The latter were favourably impressed by the quality of the work carried out within the FSGC Licensing Office, identifying interesting aspects that could potentially be applied within the Andorran system – while bearing in mind the natural and specific differences that emerged. In April 2025 the roles will be reversed, with Rondelli and Zoppis travelling to Andorra to visit their Pyrenean counterparts and explore practices that could further improve licence management in San Marino as well. Further proof of the quality of the system introduced within the San Marino FA is the certification by SGS – Société Générale de Surveillance SA, confirming full compliance with UEFA standards in terms of the quality of the national licensing system and the monitoring process for affiliated clubs.

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