EFDN – Walking Football Practitioners’ Guide

EFDN – Walking Football Practitioners’ Guide

Walking Football is simply football without running. Playing the game at a more feasible pace eliminates barriers and provides greater accessibility to the sport. It is available for participants who wish to continue to engage in football, but who may have previously been forces to stop playing the game they love due to age or injury. Walking Football and other forms of Walking Sport have become an increasingly popular form of physical activity and sport participation in Europe.

This practitioner’s guide, developed by the European Football for Development Network (EFDN) is a collection of best practices, ideas, and rules within various Walking Football programmes. The guide highlights how such innovative programmes can provide alternative interventions around health and well-being in communities and can bring organisations together to achieve a common goal. The development of the Walking Football Practitioner’s Guide was supported by Erasmus+ Sport.

The practitioner’s guide promotes three key objectives:

1. Increase participation in sport, physical activity and voluntary activity
2. Raise awareness about the health and well-being benefits of an active lifestyle
3. Provide the sporting community with a user friendly guide on how to implement walking football and walking sport programmes within the community

Next to this practitioner’s guide, the following practitioner’s guides can be found on the EFDN Online Learning Platform:

• EFDN – One Goal for Education Practitioner’s Guide
• EFDN – Community and Social Responsibility Practitioner’s Guide