Day 2 Active Fans; EFDN members prepare for delivering Active Fans
The 2nd day of the EFDN Active Fans seminar in Oslo mainly focused on the project delivery and the development of the new health and fitness app. The staff members from Vitesse Betrokken, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Rangers FC Foundation, Ferencvaros TC, NEC Nijmegen, Feyenoord Rotterdam, KAA Gent, Valerenga Fotball and the SPFL Trust shared ideas and discussed some questions regarding the delivery of the programme.
The Active Fans project aims to develop a new 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 programme uses the Scottish Football Fans in Training (FFIT) concept from the SPFL Trust for the 12-week delivery sessions and adds new methodologies and techniques to create a European Healthy Football Competition. Derek Allison from the SPFL explained how the “big FFIT family” is organised and how they handle the implementation of the methodology in new clubs. In addition to that, Allison provided the participants with a recap of the project meeting in Glasgow and answered questions regarding the FFIT workbooks of the SPFL which will build the framework for the training sessions. These training manuals will be translated by the clubs in their own languages. At the same time, the clubs presented creative ideas for the training sessions based on former health and fitness programmes which will be used in the delivery sessions.
App will motivate project participants
The seminar continued with an update on the “European Healthy Football League”. The European Healthy Football League uses the rivalry between fans to get them in better shape and the opportunity to become the healthiest club in Europe. The online competition is one of the outcomes of the Active Fans programme. The fans of the participating clubs can see their results in this app and can “compete” against each other. The aim of the app is to stimulate the participants to achieve their personal goals. All experiences of the project testing phase will be used to improve the online competition. The European Healthy Football League will become available for all European clubs and their fans at the end of 2019.
The next project meeting will take place in London in March 2019.
