ENABLE Sweden publish Sustainability Report

ENABLE Sweden publish Sustainability Report

IF Djurgården along with EFDN Members’ IF Elfsborg and the rest of the clubs in the top two leagues of Swedish football are working with ENABLE Sweden through a partnership between the Swedish FA and Swedish League.  ENABLE are an independent non-profit organisation which works to secure multi-stakeholder collaboration between the main stakeholders in Swedish football with a view to contributing to the positive and sustainable development of Swedish football, bringing together supporter and police work together to identify and achieve common goals and inclusive public debate about the opportunities and challenges that football offers.

ENABLE Sweden recently published a sustainability report  “Providing perspective on Swedish football” which sums up the development from the beginning of the ENABLE project in 2014 and underlines the importance of multi-stakeholder engagement as a way forward to a better understanding between the different stakeholders involved in handling football matches in Sweden.

Anybody working with football crowds will no doubt have felt anger and frustration at some point when misunderstandings between supporters and stewards or the police result in unnecessary escalations of tension and possible disorder. Such situations are not only damaging to the people involved and their relations but also to the reputation of the clubs and their supporters. When the ENABLE project started back in 2014 it’s aim was to create a common ground for all stakeholders involved in Swedish football. The project was initiated by head of sustainability in Djurgårdens IF Filip Lundberg together with Professor Clifford Stott, Keele University, UK:

“We started the project after a tragic death of a Djurgården supporter who was attacked by an opponent in March 2014. Our reason for starting the project was to ensure that measures would be put in place that would be based on scientific research rather than feelings”, says Filip Lundberg

Theory and practice

The project has arranged a series of events with the focus on creating a platform for collaboration where the different stakeholders have had time and room for dialogue. Many of the activities have been centred around events where supporters, club representatives, police officers and academics have worked together side by side and thus created a situation which can be called knowledge co-production. Thus, the knowledge is not just academic material generated by universities but rather is formed through the application of practice and theory.

High level of activity and commitment

The project is supported by all the main stakeholders in Swedish football when it comes to event management: Swedish football supporters via The Swedish Football Supporters’ Union (SFSU), Swedish Police, The Swedish FA (SvFF) and Svensk Elitfotboll (SEF), an organisation made up of the 32 clubs in the top two leagues in Swedish football. Some of the key figures from the report indicate a high level of activity:

• 17 observations with a total of around 250 participants
• 400 participants in different events hosted by the project. The participants were from eight different countries.
• 1500 supporters participating in surveys conducted after matches
• 18 conducted workshops
• 17 presentations done as part of police education

Organisational capacity

The activities have been made possible through external finances, initially from the County Administrative Board of Stockholm who contributed with 0.5 million SEK (approximately €48.000), and then in late 2015 Gålöstiftelsen made a huge contribution of 8 million SEK (approximately €0.75 million euro) to the project which has contributed significantly to the project’s success. The financial situation made it possible for the project to employ Anders Almgren as Operational Manager.

“The employment of Anders Almgren has been crucial for the project as he has strengthened our ability to communicate with our stakeholders on a daily basis”, says Filip Lundberg

Anders Almgren had previous experience of working within football as he has been a chairman of a supporter club before being employed as Supporter Liaison Officer in IFK Gothenburg. Almgren was also involved in writing parts of the then national coordinator’s, Agneta Blom, final report to the Swedish Government in 2015-16.

“It is satisfying and highly relevant to work with issues that can improve the relationship between supporters, clubs and the police. Situations where things go wrong is not only bad for football clubs. It can also damage the reputation of the police and young people can end up in situations where they are criminalized. That is what the project aims to avoid and something I find meaningful to work with”, says Anders Almgren

The project will continue it’s work with stakeholders. One of the activities in 2019 will be the development of a method banks for the clubs where examples of good practice will be gathered and distributed.

Download the report “Providing perspective on Swedish football” HERE