Special Olympics European Football Week 2020 – #EFW2020

Join us and be #MorethanFootball during the Special Olympics European Football Week 2020.

Since its inception in December 2014, the partnership between EFDN and Special Olympics has been all about making football accessible to everyone. This includes creating opportunities for athletes with and without intellectual disabilities across Europe.

Football being the most popular sport among European Special Olympics athletes, Special Olympics organises a region-wide celebration of the beautiful game, the European Football Week (EFW). In the past, more than 45,000 players have taken part in well above 450 football events in countries all over Europe.

This year EFDN will participate in the EFW, which will take place from the 23rd to the 30th of September. Although due to COVID-19 the 2020 edition will have to face new challenges, the campaign will represent the chance for footballers with intellectual disabilities to enter the spotlight.

Special Olympics this year introduces a new dynamic online hub called Faces of Football. It creates an opportunity for athletes, coaches and supporters to participate in Special Olympics Football Week, even if they cannot physically take part in activities and events together. The online hub will include:

Hall of Fame: A gallery of profile pictures showing the names and countries of every player, unified partner, supporter and coach involved. It will be filtered by country and position. Profile images with a country frame can be shared to Facebook automatically.

The images are mapped to the homepage in real-time showing the international picture of the Faces of Football.

The Training Ground: Videos of football skills covering six categories and three levels delivered by Special Olympics coaches.

The League Table: Generated based on the number of profiles uploaded proportionate to the country. You represent your country just by taking part.

In the past years, clubs from European Leagues – from the Italian Serie A, Serie B, Polish Ekstraklasa to German Bundesliga clubs have thrown their support behind European Football Week and we invite all campaign participants to do the same this year. What an excellent way to show that you are #MorethanFootball!