Building on last year’s inaugural UEFA Football and Social Responsibility Report, the 2013/14 edition is now available in English, French and German.

This freshly-released UEFA report looks at how football can contribute to sustainable development in society as a whole. The report also confirms UEFA’s commitment to further develop a reporting framework to measure the progress made by its social responsibility activities on an annual basis.

UEFA invested some €5m – all financed by fines imposed at UEFA competition matches – through partner organisations during the 2013/14 season, with those organisations benefiting from financial, material and media support, as well as the transfer of knowledge.

This edition of the report has been extended to include social responsibility-related key performance indicators (KPI), both for partner organisations and for UEFA, which will serve as benchmarks by which to measure performance against objectives year on year.  

Highlights of the projects across UEFA’s 54 member associations include:  
- 35 organisations, including member associations, partnered with UEFA on football and social responsibility projects during the 2013/14 season

- Over 25,000 children participated in 136 five-day Open Fun Football Schools, organised by Cross Cultures, promoting reconciliation in Southeast Europe and the Caucasus

- The World Heart Federation’s Eat for Goals app, featuring healthy recipes from Europe’s top footballers, was downloaded almost 10,000 times in less than two months after its launch. UEFA also implemented a no-tobacco policy at the UEFA club competition finals in 2014.

- CAFE – the Centre for Access to Football in Europe – completed 104 UEFA club stadium reports to establish a benchmark of the existing facilities for disabled fans

- Members of the FARE network trained 50 anti-discrimination match observers, while 694 matches were monitored during the season 

- UEFA, in corporation with Climate Friendly, has offset its flight carbon emissions of 22,996 tonnes of Co2  

Peter Gilliéron, chairman of the UEFA Fair Play and Social Responsibility Committee, said: “Football has the power to overcome what society at times cannot – from disabled fans cheering alongside their fellow supporters in the stadium, to children from communities divided by war and conflict playing together. We will continue to encourage and support our member associations, helping them to develop their own programmes and share our commitment to practising and promoting football in a socially-responsible way.”   

The next edition (2014/15) of the UEFA Football and Social Responsibility Report will include joint efforts to counter all forms of discrimination, support for the magnificent Homeless World Cup held in Chile in October 2014, the growth in grassroots participation figures across our Football for All Abilities portfolio, and much more besides.

To view the report, please click here.

Published 16/07/2015