The Golden Rules of European Legends Walking Football

The Golden Rules of European Legends Walking Football

Walking Football is a growing sport and sessions are currently taking part in all corners of the European community. As the sport grows to include more events and festivals, Football Association’s and Walking Football groups are beginning to establish Walking Football guidelines and regulations. As a result, the rules of the game vary slightly across Europe.

After taking part in the European Legends Programme, an initiative focused on broadening the Walking Football and Walking Sport methodology in Europe, the participating 13 professional football clubs, coming from 7 countries across Europe, have worked together to compile a list of rules and devised ‘The 20 Golden Rules of European Legends Walking Football’.

EFDN and the participating professional football clubs have used the Dutch Walking Football rules as the basis of the European Legends Walking Football rules. Throughout the two-year programme and the experience gained by the clubs in their weekly sessions, the rules were amended accordingly.

The European Legends Walking Football programme met the objective of increased participation in physical activity and greater social involvement for individuals being 50 years and older.

The two-year programme delivered in 7 European countries has shown that the European Legends Walking Football Rules are meeting health and safety standards and keep the game inclusive since in the delivered programme the age group varied from 50 until 93 years old.

EFDN does not claim that these rules are a standard for all over Europe, but instead we would like to emphasis that the rules are the ‘European Legends Walking Football’ rules based on the dissemination of the European Legends programme.

Additionally, the rules were used for the European Legends Walking Football Tournament at which countries from all over Europe participated, this was done with the consent of all participating parties.

Overall, we see the creation of a set of rules as an ongoing process considering that the sport has in various countries only very recently evolved.

Read here more about the European Legends Programme.