Second project meeting on the SAFER project hosted by EFDN

Second project meeting on the SAFER project hosted by EFDN

Second in-person project meeting with Football Supporters Europe (FSE) and project partners took place in Breda, The Netherlands, in order to discuss what is the current status of the project and future collaboration with SAFER project, co-funded by Erasmus+.

Friday 19th

On Friday, 19th of January 2024, FSE and project partners arrived in Breda, The Netherlands, to discuss implementation of remedy and awareness strategies at club level. Meeting took place at NAC stadium in Breda. On the behalf of EFDN, project manager Vicky Conde Sancho was present.

The German Football Association (DFB) presented collected insights, which resulted in statistics showcasing how important is prevention of gender-based violation at football games. Afterwards, further steps in relation to the SAFER project and preparation for UEFA EURO 2024 have been discussed.

Later on, the representative of Atletico San Lorenzo (ASL) discussed with project members proposal of the Italian football club and timeline of the research. Back in June 2023, the SAFER project members travelled to Rome to learn more about the research case and club’s objectives.

Saturday 20th

The day after, on Saturday, 20th of January 2024, all the partners attended meeting in the EFDN office to continue with sharing current findings. The University of Gdansk presented the current data collected from the research that is being done with the anonymous participation of football fans. This data involves participants mainly from Poland, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Portugal and The Netherlands. This research will conclude in the spring with a final report, and it is aiming to showcase the responses from football fans from all genders and their experiences in the football context as football fans. This was a long part of the session because there was a lot of data to be reviewed and discussed.

During this session, the pilot site visit status and upcoming visits, arranging details and making decisions on important next steps for the research, the Euro 2024 opportunities to collect data and the overall timeline of the projects have been discussed. At the end of the session there was an opportunity to learn more about FIX IT!, since it could possibly be used with fans and communities around football to introduce them to some social issues including homophobia, transphobia, racism or other types of abuse such as sexual abuse, online abuse or child abuse, among others.

BEING PART OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE

To help with collecting data, we would be delighted if readers of this article would fill out the following survey.

The survey is available in seven languages: English, German, Dutch, Danish, Portuguese, Italian and Polish, and the links are available to share below.

English: https://protestlab.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cZs5v5RYhpeEUzI

German: https://protestlab.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ePBGdlo59HFl5c2

Dutch: https://protestlab.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_71gYuSxeAZEZ410

Danish: https://protestlab.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8qyDZmb1HJSD1mC

Portuguese: https://protestlab.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_aV5E39QR3hGVsAC

Italian: https://protestlab.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_emxzvh8urcM22t8

Polish: https://protestlab.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6AkH5HbdCUsq4pU

PREVIOUS AND FURTHER STEPS

Back in February 2023, FSE and the SAFER project partners met online for the first time setting out the final preparations before the project is announced. One month later, the Football Supporters Europe (FSE) announced the SAFER project, showcasing its objectives and the partners taking part in the project.

Between the period of June and November 2023, FSE & EFDN met with the pilot sites (stadiums) online, which was followed by on-site visits, like travel to Rome for a study visit at Atletico San Lorenzo, in order to identify what methods work best to tackle GBV.

EFDN hosted the second partner meeting in January 2024 in the Netherlands on the implementation of remedy and awareness strategies at club level, followed by a training in Germany, related to the preparation of UEFA EURO 2024 between March and June. The upcoming week, end of January 2024, EFDN and FSE are heading to Benfica. Furthermore, Portugal will host the third partner meeting on safety & security, including the presentation of the project’s progress report at the end of this year. The evaluation of implemented activities during UEFA EURO 2024 begins in Germany.

EVALUATION OF THE SAFER PROJECT

The first evaluation of implemented activities will take place in November, 2024 during UEFA EURO in Germany. Afterwards, the final evaluation visits will take place at the pilot sites between March and June 2025, assessing the impact of the implemented activities to prevent GBV. FSE will host the final evaluation meeting and launch its handbook at the European Parliament, presenting the project’s outcomes. At the end, FSE will host the final evaluation meeting and launch its handbook at the European Parliament, presenting the project’s outcomes in November, 2025.

The project is supported by UEFA, the Sport & Rights Alliance, and the Centre for Sport & Human Rights. The SAFER project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

More information about the project here.