2019 More than Football Award Longlist Announcement
The Award
This year will see the first More than Football Award ceremony at the 13th EFDN Conference, hosted at Camp Nou, Barcelona on the 19th and 20th of November 2019. From an array of high-quality submissions for the award, the following 10 projects have been selected for the initial 10 projects long list.
2019 More than Football Award Longlist
APOLLON LIMASSOL FC – #Apollon_DriveSafe
Apollon Limassol FC has launched a new campaign called “#Apollon_DriveSafe” in the season 2018-19, which aims to promote driving consciousness and safety on the road. The decision to begin this campaign was due to the fact that Cyprus has the second highest rate of fatal car accidents per capita throughout Europe. The club aims to raise awareness among drivers and promote sensible and safe driving, through various actions and ads. Apollon Limassol FC took the campaign on the road, by visiting various schools around the city, where players and members of the local authorities took the stand and talked to young kids about the project.
CHELSEA FC FOUNDATION – Say No To Antisemitism
Chelsea FC Foundation’s “Say No To Antisemitism” raises awareness and educates their players, staff, fans and the wider community about antisemitism in football. As part of this work, the Chelsea Foundation’s equality and diversity workshops in primary schools have extended to talk specifically about Jewish faith and culture. Following a proposal raised at their Fans’ Forum, the club has launched an education programme for supporters banned for antisemitic behaviour, with participation in the course potentially leading to a reduction in their ban. A steward’s guide has also been created focusing on identifying and reporting antisemetic behaviour.
FC MIDTJYLLAND – Lose and Win
“Lose and win” is a weight loss programme for men and women that goes beyond only weight loss, aiming to facilitate social inclusion. To deliver the 12 week-project, FC Midtjylland collaborates with 136 cooperative clubs and 5,000 volunteers spread over 10 municipalities. The programme offers various training sessions and workshops about healthy nutrition. Each team in the respective clubs/cities that decide to participate, consists of 20-30 men/women. They are not necessarily all members of that club, but people from the community who wants to become more active and/or lose weight.
JUVENTUS FC – Juventus For Special@School
“Juventus for Special@School” is an educational project which aims to teach school-age students a different perspective of disability in sport and has directly reached about 2000 students. The project was born thanks to Juventus for Special teams composed by athletes with cognitive-relational disabilities who participate in the Italian national 7-a-side football tournament for people with this kind of disability. The programme includes discussions about what disability really means and represent, and practical exercises trying to recreate the difficulties that an athlete with a disability encounters during his sport activity.
PFC LUDOGORETS 1945 – #Live Friendship
The aim of “#Live Friendship” is to create a wider environment to promote people having more real-life communication and face-to-face contacts. The project focuses on encouraging children and adolescents to meet in person, lead an active lifestyle and make friends. PFC Ludogorets have also created a special group on social media meant to gather volunteers who are willing to be a part of the games and incentives of the club. This initiative gives them the chance to meet, have fun together and play sports instead of communicating online.
MONTROSE FC – Tackling Education
The project “Tackling Education” is a 9-month initiative that reaches over 1,000 children from the age of 5 to 11 each year, using football as the context to successfully improve upon school attendance, educational achievement and attainment. The programmes focus on some key UN Sustainable Development Goals, such as no poverty, good health & wellbeing, quality education, reduced inequalities, life below water and on land, and partnerships for the goals to name just a few.
RANGERS CHARITY FOUNDATION – Programme of Wider Achievement
The “Programme of Wider Achievement” was designed by the Rangers Charity Foundation by liaising with three local secondary schools and identifying a cohort of pupils within each establishment who are the hardest to reach and have defected from the school curriculum due to a variety of reasons. It allows the pupils the opportunity to attain recognised qualifications that will better prepare them for applying for jobs, college, training courses, offers vocational learning exposure that allows the pupils to gain live world of work experience within the sport sector, and better prepares the young people to progress into a positive post-school destination through course content and additional partnership links.
SHAKHTAR SOCIAL – Come On, Let’s Play!
The foundation of FC Shakhtar Donetsk has been running the “Come On, Let’s Play!” project since 2013. The project is aimed at the development of grassroots football and its popularisation throughout Ukraine. Until now the programme has welcomed 2,000 participants, boys and girls aged 7 to 12, including kids with disabilities. The club provides coaches who conduct free football training sessions in 17 different cities and towns of Ukraine and all the necessary equipment. The project aims to improve the standards of living through football for socially disadvantaged children and refugees living close to the frontline.
Scottish Professional Football League Trust – Football Fans in Training
The SPFL Trust’s flagship project “Football Fans in Training” (FFIT ) is a 12-week programme aimed at improving both men’s and women’s health and wellbeing while providing them with a behind-the-scenes look at their local football club. The free weekly sessions, based at many SPFL football stadiums across the country, are split between classroom-based workshops and physical activity training with all sessions delivered by coaches from the club. Supported by funding from the Scottish Government, football clubs in Scotland are offered the opportunity to run a block of activities supporting people who wish to lose weight, but more importantly, learn about becoming healthier.
SV WERDER BREMEN – SPIELRAUM
The “SPIELRAUM” programme which started by improving easy access to sports and sports structures in deprived neighbourhoods of Bremen, aims to achieve integration through football. Currently, SV Werder Bremen runs weekly training sessions in 5 different neighbourhoods, which are open training sessions for everybody of age groups 10-12 and 12-15. In addition, the club runs 5 weekly training opportunities next to the stadium for refugees: an open training session without any commitments for everybody 14-21, boys 7-11, boys 12-15, boys 16-21 and multisport offer for refugee and German girls 15-21. Each training is accompanied by 2 Werder coaches and 1 social worker/teacher or psychologist.
What’s next
The next step will see the long list reduced to a 4 project shortlist after further evaluation of each project. The shortlist will be announced in September with the applicants selected for the shortlist invited to make a 15-minute presentation of their project at the 13th EFDN Conference in Barcelona on the 19th or 20th of November, after which the winner will be announced.
We would like to again thank all the organisations who applied for the awards with all projects that applied to be of an extremely high standard.
