Special Champions League project kicks off

Special Champions League project kicks off

The Special Champions League project aims to enhance the social inclusion of people with an intellectual disability in society through football across Europe. The Transnational Project Meeting in Dublin was the first one of the Special Champions League programme. The project officially started in July 2022 but this was the first time that all project partners met physically.

The main topic to be discussed was the project plan, covering the 30 months of the project, which will end in December 2024, and to discuss the best ways to start delivering sessions with the participants. Furthermore, the dates for the SCL Webinar training sessions for the staff, and the dates for the First SCL International Match Day were also discussed. Mentioned dates will be announced in the upcoming weeks. This meeting gave the opportunity to the project partners to meet each other and learn more about the best ways to further continue with the project in the most efficient and effective way.

This project will be coordinated by EFDN and co-funded by the European Union through the Erasmus+ Sport programmes. The consortium includes partners who can provide plenty of experience in this field, with Special Olympics Belgium and Special Olympics Europe Eurasia taking this role, and eight football clubs who will be delivering the programme and testing the SCL Methodology for the next 27 months. These football club foundations are Fundación Alcoraz, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Benfica Foundation, KAS Eupen, NAC Breda Maatschappij, NEC Nijmegen Maatschappij, Werder Bremen Bewegt, and one more EFDN member that will be announced very soon.

The hosts for this meeting were the Special Olympics Europe Eurasia, they arranged the meeting to be at the Aviva Stadium, courtesy of the EFDN member, the FAI.

Stay connected to the EFDN and Special Champions League channels to learn more about the project and the upcoming and exciting events:

• Instagram: specialchampionsleague

• Facebook: Special Champions League

• Twitter: SpecialChamps