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Oct 9, 2019

SLO of the Month: Marc Francis of Eintracht Frankfurt

In honour of the upcoming 10 year anniversary of the development of the Supporter Liaison Officer (SLO) role, SD Europe is excited to announce a new monthly feature of various SLOs across Europe. In what is an emotional, and exciting interview, we had the privilege to ask Eintracht Frankfurt SLO, Marc Francis to reflect on his role and the future of SLO development. Commenting on the upcoming anniversary, SD Europe’s Head of SLO Implementation, Stuart Dykes, said: “It’s been

Jul 12, 2019

Celebrating Our Football: HFC Falke vs YSK Beveren

It is an exciting weekend for fan-owned football, as HFC Falke will celebrate its 5-year anniversary by hosting a friendly match with fellow fan-owned side YB SK Beveren in Hamburg! The two sides will utilise their preseason plans to highlight the growth of fan-owned football throughout Europe. HFC Falke will be hosting the Beveren first team, as well as supporters for a day of football, celebration, and aspiration. The clubs have always had a special relationship and the opp

Jul 12, 2017

Supporter Liaison Officers continue building bridges

The SLO requirement enters its sixth season, as SD Europe celebrates its tenth anniversary celebrated its first AGM with representatives from 15 different countries. In the ten years of SD Europe’s existence, structured dialogue has been a core part of the organisation, materialising in the introduction of the Supporter Liaison Officer requirement in the UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations (Article 35) in 2012/13. It has been a busy five years for the SLO

Jun 21, 2017

SD Europe organise the second European club SLO network meeting

Eleven SLOs were represented at the meeting, and the network has grown by 40% The SLOs who attended the second club SLO European network meeting at the VELTINS Arena in Gelsenkirchen were as follows: Adrian Gruenig (FC Basel, Switzerland), Beverley Mayer (St. Johnstone, Scotland), Andrey Kyuchukov (Dunav Russe, Bulgaria), Kiriakos Giantsidis (PAOK, Greece), Lasse Bauer (Brøndby, Denmark), Maurice Dumas (Feyenoord, Netherlands), Riccardo Bertolin (Roma, Italy), Thomas Kirschne

Jun 15, 2017

Third Erasmus+ Workshop To Focus On Members And Volunteers

The event will build further on the previous two workshops, on Governance and Finance, as well as the 16 exchange visits between the partners. The initiative is co-financed by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union and Uefa. The third workshop of SD Europe‘s Erasmus+ project will be take place this weekend (16-18/6) at the stadium of Schalke 04, one of the biggest member-run clubs in the world, and in Germany, the country most suitable to welcome an event on members and

Mar 24, 2017

FASFE members look into the SLO role

On March 14th FASFE organised a meeting with Bayer Leverkusen supporter liaison officer (SLO) Frank Linde in Madrid. The meeting was co-organised by Rayo ADRV Accionistas and attended not just by supporter groups but also by clubs both from the local area and outside Madrid, evidence of the great interest in learning more about the SLO role and how it can improve the relationship between clubs and supporters and the matchday experience for all parties involved. Frank made an

Dec 14, 2016

Swedish SLOs visit Germany

With the Swedish football season over for another year, the time was right for a delegation of supporter liaison officers (SLOs) to pay a visit to Germany to exchange experiences with and learn more about the work of their counterparts at two German clubs. The visiting delegation was made up of SLOs from 12 Swedish clubs plus Madeleine Ödquist of the Swedish Football League (SEF), who organised the trip in association with SD Europe. While in Germany, the SLOs held meetings w

Aug 17, 2016

See you around, Jens!

Jens Volke, one of seven SLOs at Borussia Dortmund, has announced his departure from the club’s SLO team to join the media department. A former leader of the Dortmund ultras group The Unity, Jens had been in the post for more than eight years. Jens made an important contribution to the development of the SLO project at European level, especially in its early stages, attending workshops for football associations and club SLOs in a number of countries to share his knowledge and

Jul 5, 2016

2015/16 a great season for the Supporter Liaison Officer project

Apart from the regular standard training, education and strategy meetings, 2015/16 saw a number of developments of landmark importance in the evolution of the SLO project. In January 2016 SD Europe were awarded observer status on the Standing Committee of the European Convention on Spectator Violence (TR-V) for a renewable period of three years. And towards the end of the season SD Europe organised, with the support of UEFA, the inaugural European SLO network meeting in Swede

May 26, 2016

First project workshop set for Manchester, 13-15 June

The date has been set for the first Clubs and Supporters for better Governance in Football project workshop: from 13-15 June, project partners and contributing organisations will gather at FC United of Manchester for two days of debate, discussion and collaboration; all under the theme of Governance. It’s a word that has become ubiquitous in sporting circles over recent years, and as such, governance can be defined in many ways. This workshop will address those debates, but a

Feb 19, 2016

Annual assembly of German SLOs raises the bar

SLOs of clubs in the top three tiers of the German football pyramid gathered in Kaiserslautern for their annual assembly in early February. The meeting was jointly organised for the first time by the German Football Association (DFB) and the German Football League (DFL). Some 80 SLOs attended the two-day event. The assembly was chaired by Benjamin Kandler, Deputy Head of Supporter Affairs at the DFL, and Bülent Aksen of the DFB Supporter Contact Point. It was opened by the ho

Jan 21, 2016

Promoting a more positive image of supporters in Germany

Under the regulations of the German Football League (DFL) every Bundesliga club is required to employ at least two full-time SLOs. Elsewhere, SLOs are deployed by clubs down to the fourth tier and beyond. Together, the German Football Association (DFB) and the DFL also fund more than 50 socio-pedagogical fan projects, having substantially increased the budget two years ago. The number of violent incidents in German football has been falling for many years. There is still room

Jul 9, 2015

Supporter Liaison Officer season 2014/15 round-up

2014/15 has been another busy year for the SLO project as various licensing bodies across Europe organised training workshops or events for their club SLOs, the UEFA SLO bilateral meetings were introduced, new translated and localised handbooks were published, initiatives with direct impact on the SLO were started, there was an effort for its better understanding by and cooperation with non-football stakeholders, its communications improved with a new UEFA electronic newslett

Apr 2, 2015

German Disability Access Officers meet for their annual plenary

In a previous article about the disability access officer (DAO) we underlined the importance of the role in the improvement of the holistic relationship of a club with its supporters, as disabled supporters are a different segment of the fan base with different demands and requirements that need to be understood and met. In Germany, DAOs from 25 Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs recently gathered for their annual plenary organised by the German Football League (DFL), at which

Dec 15, 2014

German SLOs gather in Cologne

Read the original article here (in German) A total of 65 supporter liaison officers (SLOs) from the 36 clubs in Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 came together at the beginning of December for their annual winter plenary meeting, organised in cooperation with the German Football League (DFL). The various workshops focused on enhancing the experience of supporters travelling to away matches, pro-action and the fight against right wing extremism in the stands, and improving the shari

Dec 9, 2014

A day in the life of a fifth-tier SLO

Follow the SD Europe official SLO account on twitter @SuppLiaison SSV Ulm 1846 against SSV Reutlingen. A classic south German derby. No matter which division the clubs are in, this matchup holds a unique allure for fans, players and officials alike. It was no different on 8 November, when the two sides met in the Oberliga Baden Wuerttemberg, currently the fifth tier of the German football league system. It had been almost exactly three years to the day since their last encoun

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