EFDN will hold first Active Fans Project Meeting in Gent

On 20th and 21st of February, the first project meeting of the new Pan-European Programme Active Fans/ Healthy Football League will take place at KAA Gent. The project meeting will follow the objective of discussing the overall aims and objectives of the programme. 

Active Fans a new Pan-European Programme

The Active Fans programme, which will be running from January 2018 until June 2020 aims to develop a new European standard and methodology that uses football as a tool to reach men and women from 35 years and older who would like to get physically active again, make lifestyle changes and improve their diets.

The Erasmus+ Sport funded programme, coordinated by EFDN, is being delivered in collaboration with the 9 project partners; Fulham FC Foundation, Vitesse Betrokken, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Rangers FC Foundation, Ferencváros TC, NEC Nijmegen, Feyenoord Rotterdam, KAA Gent and Valerenga Fotball.

Within the Active Fans programme, the participants receive the opportunity to learn about nutrition, get physically active and start to feel the benefits of weight loss and increased energy.
In recent years, a number of clubs and organisations in Europe have developed methodologies for a similar programme, promoting physical activity and healthy lifestyle for that particular target group. The EFDN Active Fans programme will look to develop a common methodology which will be rolled out across Europe.

Establishment of a European Healthy Football League

Furthermore, the programme will see the establishment of a Healthy Football League. The Healthy Football League will be an online competition that encourages the participants of the Active Fans programme to make healthy lifestyle choices and gives the possibility to compete online with fans from other clubs to become the healthiest club in Europe. All participants will act as a player in an online app and can score points for their club, long after they have finalised their 12 week programme.

The Healthy Football League website and online app will make it easy to track exercise and it will be simple to use – the more they train, the more points they score to beat the fans of other clubs in the competition.

The Active Fans programme will be tested in nine cities in six European Countries. Every city has its own local Healthy Football League activities and through the online Healthy Football app they will compete with the other clubs in the project.

Project Meeting in Gent

The project meeting in Gent, which will be coordinated by EFDN and attended by two staff members of each club, follows the objective of discussing the overall aims and objectives of the programme. All project partners will present their current methodologies and present evidence of impact to the other participating clubs.