The ECA represents around 230 professional clubs in Europe. The organisation is regularly represented by 24 board members, especially focused on topics relating to the continental football Association UEFA, which acts as the umbrella organisation for all national football associations and as a marketer of European club competitions. In addition to Carro, Dan Friedkin (President, AS Roma) and Oleg Petrov (CEO, AS Monaco) were newly appointed to the ECA Board of Directors.
It became necessary to fill positions on the board after several clubs and their officials represented on the ECA board sought and announced the establishment of a 'Super League' last April – bypassing the bodies of UEFA and ECA. The project failed. At the top of the ECA, Andrea Agnelli, club boss of Juventus, had to resign. With him went six other top officials of the Super League project. And nearly was replaced by Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the Chairman and CEO of the top French club Paris Saint-Germain.
"European football is facing major challenges, and not only because of the pandemic and its consequences. There will be a lot to accomplish in the next few years," said Fernando Carro, who has been the CEO at Bayer 04 since 2018. "I see this responsibility as both an honour and motivation. And I'm delighted that, as representatives of the Bundesliga, we will be given even greater voice, influence and opportunities for input when it comes to the future of football."
Video games manufacturer Electronic Arts (EA), together with the German Football League (DFL), announced the top male and female selections for the 2025/26 Bundesliga season this week. Bayer 04 striker Vanessa Fudalla is in the starting eleven of the women's "Team of the Season". Alejandro Grimaldo and Aleix Garcia have been selected as bench players in the men's team.
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This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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RB Leipzig travel to Leverkusen on the back of a winning run: Ole Werner's team have clocked up five wins on the bounce. Currently third in the Bundesliga, qualification for the UEFA Champions League is within reach. This Saturday, 2 May (kick-off: 18:30 CEST), RBL want to take the next step towards next season’s UCL campaign at the BayArena. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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