[7] UEFA was officially inaugurated on 15 June 1954 in Basel, Switzerland after consultation between the Italian, French, and Belgian associations.

[9] UEFA grew to more than 50 members by the mid-1990s, as new associations were born out of the fragmentation of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia into their constituent states.

These include England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales (UK constituent countries), Gibraltar (UK overseas territory), Faroe Islands (Danish Realm), and Kosovo (state with limited recognition), however, in the context of these countries, government functions concerning sport tend to be carried at the territorial level coterminous with the UEFA member entity.

[12][13] On 28 February 2022, due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and in accordance with a recommendation by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the UEFA suspended the participation of Russia.

[19] Five of the UEFA national teams, Germany, Italy, France, England and Spain, have won 12 out of 22 FIFA World Cups for Europe.

These five nations also make up the so-called «Europe's Big Five», consisting of Spain's La Liga, England's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, Italy's Serie A and France's Ligue 1.

The top-ranked UEFA competition is the UEFA Champions League, which started in 1955 as the European Champion Clubs' Cup (or simply the European Cup) and initially only gathered the top team of each country; this competition has since been expanded to gather the top 1–4 teams of each country's league (the number of teams depend on that country's ranking and can be upgraded or downgraded).

The European/South American Cup was jointly organised with CONMEBOL between the Champions League and the Copa Libertadores winners.

This event, despite enjoying a long and well-established tradition in the European futsal community, dating back to 1984, was never recognised as official by UEFA.

There was an attempt to create a Europa League-style second tier women's club competition, which began in discussion in 2021.

[47] The term has also been covered for its use outside of stadiums, for example during a protest in Kosovo outside an EU building following the Serbia v Albania (UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying) match.

Copenhagen supporters displayed banners around the city, with slogans such as "UEFA MAFIA – THE PANDEMIC OF FOOTBALL", when UEFA ordered their 2019–20 Europa League round of 16 return leg be played behind closed doors, despite reduced capacity being allowed by the Danish government.

Swiss prosecutors accused FIFA president Sepp Blatter of making a "disloyal payment" of $2m (£1.6m) to Mr Platini.

Swiss attorney general, Michael Lauber [de], stated: "We didn't interview Mr Platini as a witness, that's not true.

Platini appealed to Court of Arbitration for Sports, which lowered the six-year ban to four years.

[52] In 2019 UEFA's decision to host Europa League Cup final in Baku, Azerbaijan left one of the finalists, Arsenal, with a decision to withdraw their Armenian player Henrikh Mkhitaryan out of the competition due to safety concerns,[53] and there has been long-standing debates about the extent to which the elite clubs or UEFA itself should exert the most influence on the game.

[54] UEFA's decision to partner with blockchain company Chiliz in February 2022 was criticised and described as 'incomprehensible' by fan groups across Europe.