This weekend, Supporters in Campo will welcome their fellow Clubs and Supporters for Better Governance in Football project partners Svenskafotbollssupporterunionen (SFSU) to Verona, where the organisation will hold its General Assembly. The event will also serve as the first in a series of project exchange visits between partners.
Hosted by founder members Verona Col Cuore, the supporters’ trust at Hellas Verona, the main aim of the event is to allow Supporters in Campo’s members to come together and reflect on the past year for the organisation, as well as the year ahead. There will also be the usual formal requirements: presentation of the board’s annual report to members, approval of the financial statements, and elections.
The presence of the SFSU’s representatives continues a well-established Supporters in Campo tradition of welcoming like-minded organisations to their annual events, something that is particularly important this year in light of both organisations participating in the Clubs and Supporters for Better Governance in Football project. The purpose of the exchange visits is to provide further space for exploration of themes developed during project workshops – the first of which took place earlier this year, in Manchester.
As national organisations with increasing and diverse memberships, the weekend will undoubtedly present an ideal opportunity for both Supporters in Campo and the SFSU to learn from one another, and lay the groundwork for future co-operation on issues of shared importance.
To follow the weekend’s events in real time, be sure to keep an eye on the #SinC2016 hashtag on Facebook and Twitter.
About the ‘Clubs and Supporters for Better Governance in Football’ project
This 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)
Cork City FC; Irish Supporters’ Network (Republic of Ireland)
Malmö F.F.; 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.
The project will be supported by an advisory board, made up of:
Jonas Baer-Hoffmann (Head of Public Affairs, FIFPro Division Europe)
Ivo Belet MEP (Member of the European Parliament)
Sean Hamil (Director, Birkbeck Sport Business Centre, Department of Management, Birkbeck College, University of London)
Dr Joachim Lammert (Universität Leipzig, Sportwissenschaftliche Fakultät, FG Sportmanagement)
Pedro Velázquez (EU sports governance expert)
This is the second EC-funded project to be coordinated by SD Europe, following the successfulImproving Football Governance through Supporter Involvement and Community Ownership preparatory action in the field of sport, which also involved three other members of this collaborative partnership.
About SD Europe
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 us.
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