Football fans in their cities

Brief description

The main reason for launching the "Football Supporters In Their Cities" project was the wish to improve the mutual relationships between the fans'associations and the institutions, as well as to modify actions undertaken by these specific non-governmental organizations. Its implementation aims to strengthen democratization within the community of fans and back up the positive actions initiated by its members. Moreover, the project realization is based on creating a common-ground that will initiate (or improve) the dialogue between the local fans' associations and the institutions, and that will also assist in bringing sanctioned procedures into being, especially when it comes to widelyunderstood communication among all the subjects, as well as the structures aimed at ensuring their coordination. Through popularizing democracy and deepening the fans' understanding of themselves and their environment, the project's main objective is then to build solid grounds for local community integration and to develop civic society through active youth participation in these procedures.

How did your idea come up?

Granting Poland and Ukraine with the organization of UEFA EURO 2012 contributed not only to taking specified actions in order to prepare the very tournament, but also to increasing awareness as far as the Polish fans’ environment is concerned, the latter deriving from a necessity to guarantee safety during the competition. The negative image of the fans’ world ,with its racial or anti-Semitic attitudes and violent behaviour, together with a lack of harmonious cooperation between the local supporters’ associations and the institutions, made the Kazimierz Górski Foundation decide to create a social project which would, at least partly, contribute to solving the problems diagnosed. 

Objectives

Implementation of the FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS IN THEIR CITIES project workshops is based on the assumption that not only will solid and effective partnerships be built and the image of the fans improve, but also that the project participants will gain knowledge in the following areas:

• how an association functions within the democratic structures,
• what its means of progress are, especially when it comes to the effectiveness of its actions,
• how to use the project method within a fans‘ non-governmental organization,
• how to obtain extra-financing and take part in competitions organized by local governments, non-governmental and European organizations,
• how to promote an association and the situation for the fansin general through the use of conscious image creation,
• how the European organizations connected with the fans‘ movement (Koordinationsstelle Fanprojekte, Football Supporters Europe) function,
• how to use the fan-coaching technique as a means of working with the fans, recommended by the European Committee,
• how the fans‘ embassies operate during UEFA tournaments,
• how to cooperate with foreign partners at a European level.

Partnership

Poland:
Public institutions : Gdańsk City Council, Wrocław
City Council, Warsaw City Council
Associations : "Lwy Północy" Lechia Gdańsk Supporters
Association, "Wielki Śląsk" Association,
Legia Warszawa Supporters Association
National treasury partnership : PL.2012

Germany
Informal youth groups : Fanladen St. Pauli, HSV
Fanprojekt
Non-governmental organization : Jugend und Sport
e.V, Football Supporters Europe (FSE)
Public institution :
Koordinationsstelle Fanprojekte (KOS)

Pitfalls/difficulties

The first problem during implementation of the workshops was creating an activity schedule that would satisfy all the project participants. One has to be aware of the fact that the project included both representatives from the local civic authorities, and the most active fans from the association. Accordingly, the schedule for the workshops was to take into consideration not only the timetable for the matches (the fans involved in the project are active in the life of their community, cheering during matches, preparing their setting and travelling to away matches), but also the fact that representatives from the local institutions were taking part as well.

The second difficulty that arose during the project realization was the conflict between one of the fans’ associations and the club’s authorities. Distrust, and a lack of candidness and real commitment to the actions undertaken during the workshops influenced the implementation of the substantial assumptions of the project in a negative way.

Strong points

The project participants started working on the specific extra-financing applications, such as those within the „Youth in Action” Project frames. The assets obtained are to enable them to implement positive actions, e.g. a football tournament for orphaned children or educational activities among children from pathological????? families. “Lwy Północy” Lechia Gdańsk Supporters Association managed to obtain the assets from Football Supporters Europe even before the closure of the project.

During the project realization some partnerships with local institutions were initiated (e.g. with the city councils, the voivodship councils and the media). These instances of cooperation found their solid confirmation even before the closure of the workshops: to enumerate just a few, the fans were involved in preparing the celebrations for awarding Poland and Ukraine organisation for the UEFA EURO 2012 , or they were invited to monitor the process of obtaining permission to organize a mass event.

The project has been taken under the honourable patronage of the Ministry of Sports and Tourism.

Canal+ Sport Poland broadcast a special programme concerning the issues of football culture in Poland before UEFA EURO 2012. Not only was a documentary about the workshops made, but one of the football fans and the coordinator of the project also took part in the live discussion. 

Budget:

57,695€

Contact

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