UEFA Grassroots Awards 2025/26: Best Initiative by a Professional Football Club

BK Häcken from Sweden are the winners of the 2025/26 UEFA Grassroots Award for the Best Initiative by a Professional Football Club, thanks to their collaborative network of support across the Gothenburg region.

Häcken work with 16 local clubs to create a positive football environment for 3,000 girls and boys in Gothenburg, delivering a programme of coach, player and club development that helps the whole community grow.

The club’s work includes providing general education to strengthen long-term standards of coaching, as well as delivering specific programmes tailored to individuals’ needs, such as organising UEFA C licence or Swedish D licence grassroots coaching courses.

While the Allsvenskan club provides elite-level direction to the initiative, its success hinges on an environment of collaboration.

“Our work with the partner clubs focuses on cooperation, inspiration and knowledge sharing,” explains Kristoffer Pilmalm, former development coordinator at BK Häcken.

“We gather the partner clubs on a quarterly basis and discuss a topic, or several topics, of their choice. We want to listen to the clubs in our locality. A lot of our success with the clubs has been a result of being open and transparent with them and listening to what they need.”

As a community hub, Häcken work alongside partners across the region, and host their own annual community awards and local tournament, the Gothia Cup.

It all adds up to a successful model that has helped to improve club quality, coaching education and player retention across the region, fully aligning with the Swedish FA’s goal of keeping more young people engaged in football.

For the initiative to work, the professional club has required humility to act as facilitators, rather than competitors.

“Instead of competing with the clubs, we are now cooperating with them,” he explains. “You need to see yourself as a club that is part of an eco-system, not as the only eco-system in terms of player or coach development. The elite club’s role is to support, not to control, or make a grassroots club do all the things that the elite club is doing. Humility and seeing yourself as a partner are important.”

Best initiative by a professional football club 2025/26: silver and bronze winners

🥈Silver: Hearts of Midlothian (Scotland)

Hearts’ Play the Game initiative, built in partnership with the Scottish FA, uses street-football creativity to support 3,000 players and ensure that more young people play the game and thrive within a clear community pathway.

🥉Bronze: Budapest Honvéd FC (Hungary)

Budapest Honvéd FC engages 11,000 players through a wide network of clubs, schools and grassroots initiatives, working with the Hungarian FA to create strong participation and development pathways.

The UEFA Grassroots Awards are presented each year to recognise community football clubs and projects across Europe that have made outstanding contributions to the game.

Candidates are nominated by UEFA’s member national associations, with winners selected by our Development and Technical Assistance Committee following recommendations from the UEFA Grassroots Panel.

The awards are presented in partnership with EA Sports FC and Lidl as part of our wider grassroots partnerships, supporting participation, development and positive experiences through football. Gold winners receive €10,000, with silver and bronze winners receiving €6,000 and €4,000 respectively to support their ongoing work.

Since their launch in 2010, 157 UEFA Grassroots Awards have been presented to winners from 45 national associations.