EFDN Highlights: September 2022

EFDN Highlights: September 2022

As 2022 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 September.

2nd edition of Walking Football tournament

The second edition of the European Walking Football Tournament took place in the Bayer 04 Youth performance center in Leverkusen, Germany. After the 1st edition of the tournament that took place in May 2022 in Breda, the Netherlands.

The day was a great success as 18 teams, consisting of players who are all aged 50 or older, brought back their competitive spirit to compete for the Walking Football League tournament in Leverkusen. This year, the tournament was linked with the 5-year anniversary of the Silver clubs of Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Germany. To celebrate this fact, there were additional events planned on the evening of the 21st and the evening of the 22nd at the Bayer Arena, which were thoroughly enjoyed by all participants.

Throughout the day, a lot of goals were scored, friends were made and finally a few beverages were consumed. Although the results were always on the mind of the players while playing, the tournament was also a great opportunity for the players to socialize and rediscover their love for the game.

Although it was about having fun the results will always have some importance and therefore EFDN is glad to announce that through their hard work, teamwork and great skill, the champions of the second edition of The Walking Football League Tournament were; Bayer Leverkusen A!

In second place was FC Schalke 04 and coming in third was Athletic Club Bilbao.

After such a successful day in Leverkusen the participants and organisers are looking forward to the next edition.

The Premier League helps girls play the game they love

The Premier League is aware that for some, it’s a deep passion that they want to take forward into the professional arena, while for others it presents an opportunity to play a fun game alongside friends that become so close-knit they want to go on the field and help one another. This September at Gunnersbury Park Sports Hub in London, 11 teams comprising girls who deeply enjoy football and playing for their respective teams came together to celebrate their love of the game.

“There were no girls’ teams growing up, so watching all this and seeing all the girls enjoying themselves is so exciting and lovely to see.”(…) “I played football with the boys at my primary school and then also my local boys’ team, but then I got told that I wasn’t allowed to play with the boys any more.”(…) “We want it to be so easy for girls to play football and enjoy it.”

UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 winner and England’s record goalscorer, Ellen White

Having been not much older than the girls playing in this tournament at the time, White looked on in awe at the opportunities being presented to the young girls.

The Premier League investment into The FA’s Emerging Talent Centres (ETC) is just one way of showing that commitment to pushing and driving the women’s game.

Over the next three years, the Premier League is investing £5.25m into Girls’ ETCs in order to support player pathways for girls across 70 centres. The main area of focus here is girls aged 8-16.

The Gunnersbury tournament comprised teams from almost every part of London, and what was evident was that the contingent were extremely diverse.

While centres have been available in the past, reaching all the communities possible has always been an area of struggle, and one that huge steps have been taken in, as displayed by the participants of the tournament.

Asante remarked on how programmes like this not only mean a lot for getting girls involved in football, but also “a shift in society when we start to normalise the roles of women, allowing girls to be inspired and to inspire… something that communities get behind locally”.

For her, the personal development side that football brings is evident.

Premier League Primary Stars involves the League funding 105 professional football clubs across the pyramid to deliver free school sports sessions to five to 11-year-olds.

Tournament champions AFC Wimbledon have benefited from the programme, and U11 player Alice spoke about the event signifying “a great opportunity for girls to play football and have fun with friends”.

Team-mate Leilani added: “I know not every girl gets the opportunity to play football but I’m really glad that we get the chance to.”

Both girls were beaming both on and off the field and it was clear to see what programmes like this mean to them and their development.

Most notably, they both referred to the impact their coaches have had on them and the way they think.

Traits such as “not giving up” and “trying your best” were mentioned as part of the mantras they abide by, ideals that slot into every walk of life.

Though we know that barriers to entry still exist for girls in football, it’s also clear that the mindset towards the women’s game is changing.

And as more effort goes into creating pathways for these girls who want to play socially and professionally, we get renewed confidence, like that of Leilani and Alice, that there is a path to navigate for girls in football.

EFDN on tour in Spain

This September EFDN made its rounds to visit some of our Spanish members, to get up to date on their current projects, plan for the future and discuss any expansion or great collaboration between EFDN and their organizations. EFDN stopped by Getafe, Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad and Real Betis, here are some of the highlights of the trip. We hope to continue to work together with these Spanish clubs and to continue to grow within the country.

Fundación Getafe CF, the charity of Getafe CF was established with the objective of creating a better society by developing the Club’s Social Responsibility policies. These policies are concentrated in different dimensions of action: Society, education, environment and innovation. Without a shadow of a doubt, football and its capacity for influence is a great platform in order to develop these policies, achieving the greatest impact and social awareness. EFDN met the foundation representatives at the Coliseum Alfonso Perez, the club’s stadium, to discuss their Walking Football team and their Genuine team (for participants with an intellectual disability). These two are their main projects but they have more activities with the foundation and players from the club. We also discussed the different benefits from being an EFDN member. 

Founded in 2002, the Athletic Club Fundazioa Foundation’s primary mission is to return to society part of what society gives to Athletic Club. This is accomplished through an important agenda of initiatives in the social, social-sporting and socio-cultural scopes whose main objective is to improve our society. To achieve this, the Foundation sets in motion activities and programs either individually or with the collaboration of different social agents and organizations. All Foundation activities use football and/or Athletic Club’s social, historical and cultural dimension as tools to help improve the quality of life of the people for whom they are intended. At Athletic we mostly discussed the Walking Football League (WFL) project and the possibility to host a WFL tournament soon. We started the visit at the Palacio Ibaigane, at the heart of the club. We visited the offices at the foundation, where we could spot the EFDN WFL trophy from Breda. We also visited San Mamés and ended the visit at the training facilities in Lezama, where the WFL tournament could take place. The foundation has numerous projects and they are very well known in the community. In addition to the Walking Football, we discussed other projects, including participants with intellectual disabilities and safeguarding children in football. 

Real Sociedad Fundazioa, is a charity entity whose main mission is to promote sport, equality, sustainability, culture, social activities and the basque language. Their two main pillars are; football education: The foundation uses a holistic educational approach because we not only train footballers but also educate people. Our work is not limited to our training academy Zubieta; we support all of Gipuzkoa’s youth football, as well as school sports. The second pillar is social responsibility: by developing our own programmes and collaborating in programmes from other associations, we achieve the necessary social impact to build a society more in line with the values that represent our community. We met them at the Reale Arena to discuss the different options and benefits of their EFDN memberships and opened the door to new possible projects. We also discussed some local projects. Similarly to Getafe and Athletic, Real Sociedad also had strong football for participants with intellectual disabities, and a Walking Football league project. 

Fundación Real Betis believes that football can be used as a tool to promote educational values, to contribute to the fight against marginalisation and social exclusion, as well as to promote healthy life habits among children and young people. The main reason for this visit was to prepare for the 19th EFDN Conference, which will be hosted in Sevilla in March 2023. We looked into the many possibilities at the Benito Villamarín and the training facilities of the club, there the foundation delivers their projects. During our trip to Sevilla we also spotted some possible venues for the side events, including our two networking dinners.

Overall the trip throughout Spain was a great success and we got an update and an insight into what some of our member clubs in Spain are getting up to. We look forward to seeing much more from our Spanish members in the upcoming months/years, and would like to thank all the clubs for their hospitality while we were there.