The ‘Clubs and Supporters for better Governance in Football’ project has officially begun – kicking off two years of exchange, collaboration and cooperation across seven EU member states.
It is a two-year project, coordinated by SD Europe, and co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union and UEFA. The project will help promote EU principles on good governance in sport. It will do this through a training, education and exchange programme involving member-run football clubs and national supporters’ organisations; covering the full range of the football pyramid and aimed at promoting co-operation between like-minded organisations.
The partners and contributing organisations (in italics) are as follows:
– C.A.P. Ciudad de Murcia; FASFE (Spain)
– Cava United; Supporters in Campo (Italy)
– Cork City FC; Irish Supporters’ Network (Republic of Ireland)
– Conseil National des Supporters de Football (France)
– F.C. United of Manchester (UK)
– Malmö FF; Svenskafotbollssupporterunionen (Sweden)
– Schalke 04; Unsere Kurve (Germany)
The project addresses three core topics, which are of importance to all the partners: good governance, financial sustainability, and member/volunteer engagement and democratic participation.
Partners will attend a total of three in-person sessions, plus opening and closing events. These will be supplemented by a series of one-to-one exchanges. The project will also include a research and evaluation element, in order to assist the ongoing measurement of good governance in sport; and the development of an online training resource, which will provide long-term impact beyond the lifetime of the project.
All partners recently gathered in London, along with Israfans (the national organisation for supporters’ groups and member-run clubs in Israel) and Sandlanders (an organisation working to promote supporter involvement and community ownership in Africa). The aim of the meeting was to begin the project activities in earnest, and finalise a plan of action for the coming months. Exchange visits, workshop content, and how best to maximise the results of the project were among the topics discussed. Partners were also happy to outline their ambitions for the project, the results of which are now available via the SD Europe YouTube channel:
Partners will next gather in June, for the first of three in-person training sessions, hosted by FC United of Manchester. This session will examine questions relating to the governance of member-run football clubs and national supporters’ organisations, and content development is already underway. The coming months will also see the first exchange visits take place amongst the partners.
For further information on all of this, and to find out how you can participate in project-related activities happening in your country, make sure you sign up to receive regular email updates, or get in touch directly.
ENDS
SD Europe is an organisation that assists democratic supporters’ groups in achieving formal structured involvement in their clubs and associations, and developing member ownership of football clubs. Established in 2007 with support from UEFA, SD Europe also advises clubs on their ownership and governance structure and works with football governing bodies, leagues, UEFA, and European institutions. Currently, it is active in over 20 European countries and is responsible for the implementation of the Supporter Liaison Officer requirement (Art. 35, UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations). For more information, contact Ben Shave (ben.shave@supporters-direct.coop / +44 7985 628 215)
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