EFDN Highlights: June 2021

EFDN Highlights: June 2021

As 2021 comes to an end, EFDN invites you to look back on this year’s top activities, projects and news stories. Take a look at some highlights from June.

GREENFOOT WEBINAR

GREENFOOT’s initiative and the potential of crowdfunding, energy efficiency and sustainability projects in sport were presented in an interesting webinar by renowned experts, backed by some of the most forward-thinking organisations in the field. Held with the vision to foster financial sustainability and reform how fans & supporters engage with their favourite clubs, GREENFOOT aims to advance energy transition within football itself by utilising efficient means of green architecture. The interactive webinar, moderated by Matthew Campelli, who is the founder of The Sustainability Report & director of sustainability for Touchline, began with a crowdfunding & sustainability-focused questionnaire – to give an insight into the participants’ respective standings regarding the main topics of the day. The GREENFOOT webinar was graced by three expert panelists who demonstrate extensive experience in the fields of crowdfunding, energy and sustainability.

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2021

Sustainability labels or eco-labels are not a common sight in the world of football, as opposed to other sectors such as energy, food or consumer products. They are usually affixed to services & products that pass eco-friendly criteria laid down by governments, associations or standards certification bodies. Nowadays, non-governmental organizations are increasingly on the rise to serve eco-labels that offer credibility to initiatives or projects with regard to environmental sustainability. In this day and age, football organisations are developing their own initiatives that are worthy of attaining sustainability labels. For World Environment Day, we looked at some notable initiatives and sustainability labels in the footballing world.

ONLINE EU SEMINAR TO PREPARE EUROPEAN WEEK OF SPORT

EFDN participated in the Key Players Seminar organised by the European Commission for Sport in order to prepare the European Week of Sport 2021, to be held from September 23-30. More than 100 participants from 41 countries joined the online event. The main goal of this week is to encourage the citizens of Europe, regardless of age, social background, or fitness level, to #BeActive, which is the official slogan of the campaign! The week helps millions of people across the world to build better, healthier lifestyles and boost their physical and mental health and support social inclusion with accessible activities for all ages.

WORLD OCEANS DAY 2021

The United Nations celebrates World Oceans Day every year on 8 June. Many countries have celebrated this special day since 1992. We called all football organisations for action to protect and restore the oceans.

As a global celebration, it is designed to bring people and organisations together across the globe in a series of events highlighting ocean protection and conservation. The purpose of the Day is to inform the public of the impact of human actions on the ocean, develop a worldwide movement of citizens for the ocean, and mobilise and unite the world’s population on a project for the sustainable management of the world’s oceans.

We have gathered a few examples on how EFDN members help to clean and project the oceans.

EFDN SUPPORTS STATEMENT FOR DIVERSITY SUPPORTING THE LGBTIQ+ COMMUNITY

The EFDN supported all the messages sent out by some of our members in order to encourage progressive movements and human rights in reaction to the UEFA decision not to light up the Allianz Arena in rainbow colors during the EURO 2020 match between Germany and Hungary. EFDN stands for diversity and equal rights in which LGBTIQ+ acceptance and normalisation that everyone must be able to be themselves through our #DiversityWins programmes and Show Racism the Red Card initiatives. Let’s stand for a real equal game! We can only fight discrimination if we stand together as a team. Some of our members like KAA Gent, Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen to name a few, stood up and showed their commitment to share the rights on diversity. EFDN supports all these initiatives to encourage the LGBTIQ+ community.

MEMBER NEWS

On May 27, a school in Mariupol hosted the final session of the Scoring for Health project at Shakhtar Social in the format of a football festival. Within the framework of the festival, boys and girls competed in various disciplines: dribbling between cones, hopping on the agility ladder, keepie-uppies against the clock. The event was attended by 40 participants of the Scoring for Health programme.

Our Member AEK Athens FC kicked-off of their “Welcome Through Football” programme last week. The Pan-European programme is an EFDN initiative co-funded by the European Union and includes AEK FC and other top European clubs such as Newcastle, Everton, Werder Bremen, Sheffield United, Genk, Benfica and Hearts.

New Members

In June, EFDN welcomed new members OFI Crete FC, St. Patrick’s Athletic FC and Cork City FC.