Video, presentations and report 10th EFDN Conference

Video, presentations and report 10th EFDN Conference

On the 21st and 22nd of March 2018 EFDN had the pleasure to welcome more than 120 delegates from all across Europe at its 10th EFDN #Morethanfootball milestone conference in Paris. The EFDN conference provided plenty of opportunities to learn about new trends and programmes on CSR, but this time it was much more than that. The event offered high energy networking opportunities, energising case studies and tips from peers, and a lot of the attendees shared their own best practices and challenges.  

One of the highlights of the event was the official launch of the 2018 #Morethanfootball Action Weeks. The well participated campaign promotes the fantastic community work and is being delivered by football clubs, leagues and FA’s from across Europe. Representatives from all attending organisations could sign the #Morethanfootball wall to pledge their participation in the campaign.

The first day started with a warm welcome from our chair Ton Strooband and Christine Le Gal from the Paris Saint Germain Foundation. After the network roundtables and a number of presentations a panel discussed the current status and challenges to “Tackling Racism in Football”. Tony Higgins (FIFPro), Federico Addiechi (FIFA), Paul Elliot (Player Ambassador from English FA) and Hubert Rovers (EFDN) passionately discussed how to eliminate racism, discrimination and intolerance not only in football, but in the society in general. The public was very involved in the discussion and asked a number of questions and expressed their view points on the matter.

Later on, the panel discussion was followed by a presentation from Gabriele Hartmann who highlighted the vision of SAP to use the power of football and technology to impact young people, and Real Madrid Foundation’s presentation showing the work of the foundation during the past 20 years.

The second day of the 10th EFDN Conference was as exciting as the first one. A panel excisting out of Trygve Olfarnes from the UNDP, Aisha Al-Said Albella of FC Barcelona Foundation, head of SAP’s CSR department Gabriele Hartmann and Hubert Rovers, CEO of EFDN discussed how football and sports in general can contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and analysed what can be done to achieve the SDGs and create a more peaceful, sustainable environment for everyone.

Gary Bye, representative of the Premier League, shared his expertise on safeguarding and he described how the Premier League clubs embed a culture of safeguarding in their daily operations and how it differs to child protection built on a legislative foundation. A valuable presentation about a topic which we believe needs to be at the centre of clubs and foundations strategy. All presentations and a comprehensive report of the 10th EFDN Conference can now be found on the EFDN Online Learning Platform. Please find photos of the conference here.

We would like to thank our hosts, guest speakers, club delegates and other guests for being part of the 10th EFDN Conference and their contributions to the event which we hope has contributed to stimulate innovative ideas within CSR and to develop stronger programmes with sustainable impacts. We would also like to thank Paris Saint-Germain Foundation for their commitment and hospitality in hosting this successful 10th EFDN Conference.