With the European football industry looking on, UEFA President presented streetfootballworld CEO Jürgen Griesbeck with the million-euro Monaco Charity Award during the Champions League draw.

The award was created by UEFA in 1998 to recognise outstanding organisations that use sport to achieve positive change. The decision to honour streetfootballworld was made by the UEFA Fair Play and Social Responsibility Committee.

“It’s always great to receive an award like this,” said Jürgen upon accepting the cheque onstage. “This award is a tremendous honour for us, especially since football is at the heart of everything that we and our network members do.

“The football industry is moving into a new era, where collaboration off the pitch will be as important as competition on the pitch.”

Global reach
UEFA First Vice President Senes Erzik noted that “streetfootballworld has formed a powerful coalition of people behind the aim of seizing the full potential of football from social development.

“We hope that through this award UEFA can help streetfootballworld to promote their approach even more within the football family and among all that love our game.”

The award follows hot on the heels of another recent honour: Jürgen was named European Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2011 by the Global Schwab Foundation in June.

Investing in a legacy
streetfootballworld will invest the funds into its implementation of the RESPECT your Health – Euroschools 2012 project, which is part of UEFA’s official legacy campaign for the UEFA EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.

The project aims to support local organisations in all eight UEFA EURO 2012 host cities to become multipliers in health education, and makes the most of streetfootballworld’s collaborative, grassroots-focused approach to positive social change.