SD Europe are delighted to announce that the first meeting of a working group consisting of club SLOs from around Europe will take place in Stockholm from May 18th to May 20th.
The ‘first eleven’ of the network are: Dirk Vos (KAA Gent) representing Belgium, Lasse Bauer (Brøndby IF) representing Denmark, Jonathan Waite (Tottenham) representing England, Thomas Kirschner (Schalke 04) representing Germany), Ton Strooband (Feyenoord) representing Netherlands, Arne-Christian Eggen (Rosenborg) representing Norway, Nuno Gago (Benfica) representing Portugal, Radosław Sołtys (Lech Poznan) representing Poland, John Paul Taylor (Celtic) representing Scotland, Adrian Grünig (FC Basel) representing Switzerland and Pierre Nordberg (Malmö FF) representing Sweden. Apart from the ‘regulars’, SD Europe will try to involve in all meetings as many stakeholders from the local SLO community (football authorities, police, supporters’ groups, SLO-related initiatives) as possible.
The participating SLOs are mainly working at clubs who have recently participated in UEFA competitions, come from countries were the SLO project has shown great progress and have best practice examples of great potential interest for every SLO.
Funded by UEFA, the purpose of this working group is to identify and facilitate the exchange of best practices that could be of immediate help to all SLOs, review the minimum common standards that were introduced in the 2011 UEFA SLO handbook and suggest improvements for the greater acknowledgement of the SLO role in European competitions. At this first meeting, the SLOs will also have the opportunity to shadow and see in matchday action the SLOs of Hammarby (Jakob Uddeholt and Martin Råberg), Malmö (Pierre Nordberg) and Djurgården (Lena Gustafson Wiberg and Stefan Ryderfelt).
Under Article 35 of the UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations, clubs across Europe are required to appoint a Supporter Liaison Officer (SLO) to ensure proper and constructive discourse between them and their fans. The SLO project originated in 2009 as a result of detailed talks between UEFA and SD Europe. It was approved by the UEFA Executive Committee in 2010, with SD Europe appointed to manage its implementation across UEFA’s 54 member associations. If you would like to learn more, visit the SLO section on the SD Europe website, browse the SD Europe SLO resources, follow the official SLO account on twitter or get directly in touch via slo@supporters-direct.coop.
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