Walking Football League project starts online

EFDN Members participating in the Walking Football League project virtually met on 21 January, 2pm – 5pm (CET). The project is funded by the European Union and runs for 2 1/2 years from January 2021 to June 2023. Nine partners from six countries – Norway, Hungary, Portugal, Germany, UK, Spain – are participating. The programme is targeted at people who are 50+ years old. The project will be delivered in four phases. There will also be four multiplier sport events in Leverkusen, Newcastle, Eindhoven and Gelsenkirchen where participants can meet and play against each other, as well as six international meetings for the clubs. Participants of the project will be transferred to local grassroots clubs that they keep on playing there after the project and new beneficiaries can experience how it is to play Walking Football for a professional club.

Introduction of the project partners

The webinar started with an introduction of all project partners.

Maren Edvardsen, the project manager from Vålerenga Fotball presented the club’s foundation that started in 2014 even though the club has already had a strong social aspect since 1996. The foundation’s activities continued throughout 2020 except for the summer break but have been closed down since mid-November. Participants usually have two training sessions a week- one strength-focused and one football session. The social aspect is a very important part of the project as there are also events and social activities outside the football field. The 20 players currently still keep in touch.

Ferencvárosi Torna Club presented the more than 120-year-old club with 23 sections and more than two million domestic supporters. The club benefits from engaging socially and is looking forward to getting to know good practices.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen already started with Walking Football in 2017. The club integrates former professional players to attract more players and got more motivated and determined to keep and build on their Walking Football project after participating in the EFDN European Legends Walking Football Festival in Arnhem. The club has 50 players between 55 and 80 years who currently still participate in digital training sessions.

Rangers Charity Foundation offers free Walking Football once a week and also integrate social engagements in their programme. Their Walking Football programme is integrated into other programmes.

Fundação Benfica is not new to Walking Football as they have already participated in the European Legends project, national and international tournaments. The club is already very active at engaging with different groups in society.

Real Betis Balompié Foundation on the other hand is now starting with Walking Football but delivers already other projects that are related to the main objectives of the project. The club works in the fields of disability, social cohesion, gender equality, education, international cooperation health, culture, history and environment and is already involved in related projects.

Boris Liebing from FC Schalke 04 talked about the Dutch-German Walking Football League the club was part of together with Bayer 04 Leverkusen which was funded by the DFL. Since 2018, up to eleven clubs built a Walking Football network and played against each other. At Schalke, 80 participants join two weekly practice sessions with three coaches that are former DFB players and club legends. The club also supports grassroots clubs in the regions to set up their Walking Football teams.

Morton in the Community has connected their walking football activities for male and female players to raise awareness of prostate cancer. They encourage players to be get involved in social activities such as sharing tea or coffee after sessions. Their goal is to expand the sessions, both in the number of participants and locations.

Newcastle United Foundation has already organised a Walking Football League for five years with about 300 male players and will set up a female only session soon. People under 50 can also participate if there is a good reason. Players attend two tournaments a year and everything is for free. The talk about mental health problems that were included in the sessions has also been transformed into online sessions where players can join four football talks a week. Participants can also take part in a prediction league and a quiz league to be social despite the COVID-19 restrictions.

Walking Football League methodology

Secondly, the Walking Football methodology was presented. We aim to create a final methodology that works for everyone. It consists of international and local competitions, applicable and common walking football rules around Europe, social impact on participants, engagement of stakeholders and providing participants with the opportunity to play against each other on a regular basis.
The aim is to:

Enhance the number of physically active people within the target group
Enhance the number of social contacts of local participants
Create sustainable partnerships between different stakeholders in the European walking football landscape to agree on common rules of the game and create a sustainable strategy to develop this new sport across Europe
Promote and disseminate adapted and improved football/sport methodology to a wide range of stakeholders in countries all around Europe
Promotion of the European guidelines on health enhancing physical activities

Afterwards, project partners discussed the communication and dissemination, monitoring & evaluation and finance.

Find more information about the project aims and objectives here.

Do you want to know more about Walking Football? Download our EFDN Walking Football Practitioner’s Guide here.

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