2019 – A Year in Review

As 2019 draws to a close, the CAFE team has taken a look back over some of our highlights and key projects from the last twelve months.

Celebrating Total Football #TotalAccess

The seventh annual CAFE Week of Action took place in March 2019, and was celebrated in a record-breaking 36 countries.

The initiative, which first started in Poland and Ukraine in 2013, has grown year-on-year and even more national associations, leagues, clubs, disabled fans and their groups joining us to celebrate Total Football #TotalAccess.

Highlights from the 2019 initiative include:

34 clubs across Russia celebrating Total Football #TotalAccess in a range of different ways.
A wide range of celebrations and initiatives throughout the week at Scottish clubs Celtic, Rangers and St Johnstone.
The introduction of ‘touch tours’ for partially sighted and blind fans at a number of stadiums.
Involvement of some of the world’s biggest football clubs, including FC Barcelona, Juventus, Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid.

CAFE has published a summary report of the CAFE Week of Action, including highlights from this year’s campaign and the reach of the initiative.

The CAFE Week of Action returns in 2020, and will be held between 7-15 March. If you are keen to get involved, you can find out more by downloading the CAFE Week of Action 2020 information pack here.

To support disabled fans and their groups in celebrating access and inclusion, CAFE has also launched the CAFE Week of Action small grants programme. The programme offers funding to disabled supporters and DSAs to participate in the CAFE Week of Action. Grants of up to €250 are available, subject to a successful application to CAFE.

Launching the new CAFE website

In September, the CAFE team was delighted to launch our new website. After a successful application to the Transform Foundation, CAFE had the opportunity to reinvent how we deliver our stories and resources and freshen up our look.

The new website includes a number of new features, including the #ShareYourSightlines initiative, an updated Disability Access Officer Portal and the Share Your Story form, allowing disabled fans to easily share their blogs and stories with the team.

The site offers a significant chance for interaction, and we invite you to share your comments and feedback at the foot of all our website pages.

Providing guidance to implement inclusive solutions

The new CAFE website also features a dedicated Guidance Notes area, bringing together all of our advice documents to support stakeholders across the game.

In 2019, we launched two new guidance notes on inclusive employment and sensory viewing rooms.

These guidance notes were created in cooperation with numerous experts and advisors, and include case studies to support in implementing these inclusive solutions and best practices at your stadium, club or national association.

Sharing best practices - the Disability Access Officer Network Group

Back in January, FC Barcelona hosted the first meeting of the Disability Access Officer (DAO) Network Group. The group, consisting of some of European football’s leading DAOs, discussed how they can work together with CAFE and UEFA to develop the role further and how to effectively share best practices across other clubs, leagues and national associations.

The meeting was a huge success, with many DAOs remarking on how much they had learned and would take back to their clubs.

The group continued to work together throughout the year, and in October they met again in Leipzig to update on their developments. The second meeting was also attended by a number of disabled fans, who shared their experiences and discussed how the DAO role can further support them in enjoying an inclusive matchday.

Celebrating 10 years of partnership with UEFA and preparing for UEFA EURO 2020

CAFE continued to work closely with our partners UEFA, and we celebrated ten years of cooperation in 2019.

Since CAFE was first created in 2009, we have enjoyed a positive and constructive partnership with UEFA and this has continued to flourish in 2019.

CAFE continues to offer its advice and guidance on UEFA tournaments and Finals, and published disabled spectators guides for the UEFA Champions League Final, Women’s Champions League Final, Europa League Final, UEFA Super Cup and the inaugural UEFA Nations League.

The guides, featuring information on accessible travel, accommodation and stadium access, were published in English, the local language and, where possible, the languages of all participating teams.

CAFE was proud to work with UEFA around the Champions Festival in Madrid ahead of the UEFA Champions League Final. Alongside our fellow UEFA Football and Social Responsibility (FSR) partners, we maintained a presence in the Festival and provided a demonstration of audio-descriptive commentary for hundreds of fans.

CAFE is also working with UEFA on preparations for UEFA EURO 2020. Dedicated access information is being prepared in each of the 12 host cities, and audio-descriptive commentary will be provided in at least two languages at every match during the tournament.

We have assessed access in and around all 12 host venues, and are providing information to UEFA, local organising committees and disabled fans for each stadium and host city. We have also begun to train audio-descriptive commentators for each venue, and are supporting UEFA in their accessibility ticket sales.

We are hopeful that UEFA EURO 2020 will be the most accessible, inclusive and welcoming EURO to date, and we are hugely excited for the tournament to start on 12 June!

Taking our #TotalAccess message around the world

CAFE is continuing to develop our works on a global scale, and have worked with FIFA on a number of areas throughout 2019.

This has included advising on accessibility ticket sales for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France, FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Poland and the FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar.

CAFE is also working with a number of FIFA’s football confederations, and in September we presented at the CONCACAF Professional Football Development workshop held in Panama City. CAFE is keen to spread our message of Total Football #TotalAccess across the entire football world, to celebrate a game that is truly accessible, inclusive and welcoming for all.

Welcoming Isobel to the CAFE team

We were delighted to expand the CAFE team during 2019, with Isobel Robins joining us as our full-time Research Officer.

Isobel initially joined the team on a four-month internship, and we are glad to confirm that she will be staying with the CAFE team going forwards.

Isobel has already started a number of research projects, including an analysis of accepted proofs of disability worldwide, and the appropriate use and translation of disability terminology.

We also appointed Ana Holmes as a Media and Communications Intern earlier in the year.

Ana played a huge role in preparing the new CAFE website ahead of its launch in September, and we are hugely grateful for her support during her time with us.

Since completing her internship, Ana has moved to Australia to continue to play football and we wish her the very best for the future.

Thank you!

The CAFE Office will close for the festive season at 1700 CET on Friday 20 December, and reopen at 0900 CET on Thursday 2 January 2020.

We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has worked with us in 2019. Together we have achieved some wonderful successes, and we hope that you will join us again next year in continuing to promote a game that is accessible, inclusive and welcoming for all – Total Football #TotalAccess!

Published 20/12/2019

Comments (0)

Please verify your action

Comment (maximum 3500 characters) (required)

Add a picture

Notify me when someone makes a comment

First name (required)

Last name (required)

Email (required)

Which country do you live in?

Postcode (required)

Address line 1

Address line 2

Town or city

Keeping In Touch

We'd love to keep you posted with our news, activities and how you can help in other ways. We'll never sell or swap your details with anybody else. You are free to change your mind at anytime. Please indicate how you would like to hear from us by using the tick boxes below

Via email

Via telephone

Via SMS

Via post

Which country do you live in?

Postcode (required)

Address line 1

Address line 2

Town or city

Your Privacy

We will always store your personal details securely. We'll use them to provide the service that you have requested, and communicate with you in the way(s) that you have agreed to. Your data may also be used for analysis purposes, to help us provide the best service possible. For full details see our Privacy Policy

By submitting this form you are agreeing to our terms and conditions

Terms of website use

This document (‘the terms of use’) (together with any other documents referred to in the terms of use) sets out the basis on which you may make use of our website www.cafefootball.eu (our site), whether as a guest or a registered user. Use of our site includes accessing, browsing, or registering to use our site.

Please read these terms of use carefully before you start to use our site, as these will apply to your use of our site. We recommend that you print a copy of this for future reference.

By using our site, you confirm that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to comply with them.

If you do not agree to these terms of use, you must not use our site.

Other applicable terms
These terms of use refer to the following additional terms, which also apply to your use of our site:

Our Privacy Policy, which sets out the terms on which we process any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us. By using our site, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.

Our Acceptable Use Policy, which sets out the permitted uses and prohibited uses of our site. When using our site, you must comply with this Acceptable Use Policy.

Our Cookie Policy, which sets out information about the cookies on our site.

Information about us
www.cafefootball.eu is a site operated by the Centre for Access to Football in Europe ("we"). We are registered in England and Wales under company number 06953363, registered charity number 1131339 and have our registered office at 35 Ballards Lane, London, England, N3 1XW.

Changes to these terms
We may revise these terms of use at any time by amending this page.

Please check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as they are binding on you.

Changes to our site
We may update our site from time to time, and may change the content at any time. However, please note that any of the content on our site may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update it.

We do not guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will be free from errors or omissions.

Accessing our site
Our site is made available free of charge. Access to some areas of the site may be restricted; in particular access to some areas of the site may be restricted to members who have been provided with password, login facilities or the like.

We do not guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. Access to our site is permitted on a temporary basis. We may suspend, withdraw, discontinue or change all or any part of our site without notice. We will not be liable to you if for any reason our site is unavailable at any time or for any period.

You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our site.

You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our site through your internet connection are aware of these terms of use and other applicable terms and conditions, and that they comply with them.

Your account and password
If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential. You must not disclose it to any third party.

We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms of use.

If you know or suspect that anyone other than you knows your user identification code or password, you must promptly notify us at [email protected].

Intellectual property rights
We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our site, and in the material published on it. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.

You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our site for your personal use and you may draw the attention of others to content posted on our site.

You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.

Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of content on our site must always be acknowledged.

You must not use any part of the content on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.

If you print off, copy or download any part of our site in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our site will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

No reliance on information
The content on our site is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action. You should not take or refrain from taking any action on the basis of the content on our site. Each case depends on its own facts.

We are not a law firm, do not represent or advise clients in any matter and are not bound by the professional responsibilities and duties of a legal practitioner. Nothing in the site or in these terms of use shall be construed or relied on as advertising or soliciting to provide any legal services, creating any solicitor-client relationship or providing any legal representation, advice or opinion whatsoever on behalf of us or our writers, editors, members or directors. This applies even if we publish information from law firms on the site and even if the contact details of law firms are provided on the site. Furthermore we shall not have any liability for any advice which any such law firm may give to you, if you retain them to act for you.

Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our site, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our site is accurate, complete or up-to-date.

Limitation of our liability
Nothing in these terms of use excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, or our fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by English law.

To the extent permitted by law, we exclude all conditions, warranties, representations or other terms which may apply to our site or any content on it, whether express or implied.

We will not be liable to any user for any loss or damage (direct or indirect), whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with:

use of, or inability to use, our site; or
use of, or reliance on, any content displayed on our site.

If you are a business user, please note that in particular, we will not be liable for:

loss of profits, sales, business, or revenue;
business interruption;
loss of anticipated savings;
loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation.

If you are a consumer user, please note that we only provide our site for domestic and private use. You agree not to use our site for any commercial or business purposes, and we have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.

We will not be liable for any loss or damage (including as referred to above) caused by a virus, distributed denial-of-service attack, or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our site or to your downloading of any content on it, or on any website linked to it.

We assume no responsibility for the content of websites linked on our site. Such links should not be interpreted as endorsement by us of those linked websites. We will not be liable for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

Uploading content to our site
Whenever you make use of a feature that allows you to upload content to our site, or to make contact with other users of our site, you must comply with the content standards set out in our Acceptable Use Policy.

You warrant that any such contribution does comply with those standards, and you will be liable to us and indemnify us for any breach of that warranty. If you are a consumer user, this means you will be responsible for any loss or damage we suffer as a result of your breach of warranty.

Any content you upload to our site will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary, and we have the right to use, copy, distribute and disclose to third parties any such content for any purpose.

We also have the right to disclose your identity to any third party who is claiming that any content posted or uploaded by you to our site constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, or of their right to privacy.

We will not be responsible, or liable to any third party, for the content or accuracy of any content posted by you or any other user of our site.

We have the right to remove any posting you make on our site if, in our opinion, your post does not comply with the content standards set out in our Acceptable Use Policy.

The views expressed by other users on our site do not represent our views or values.

You shall not store, distribute or transmit any material through the site (including by making a contribution (‘Contribution’) submitted to any forum, blog, wiki or article on the site ) (‘Forum’) that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, defamatory, obscene, harassing or racially or ethnically offensive; facilitates illegal activity; depicts sexually explicit images; or promotes unlawful violence, discrimination based on race, gender, colour, religious belief, sexual orientation, disability, or any other illegal activities. By submitting a Contribution to the Forum, you agree to grant us a non-exclusive licence to use that Contribution. You agree that we will have the right to freely use, edit, alter, reproduce, publish and/or distribute the material contained in your Contribution (such licence to be free of charge, irrevocable, perpetual and capable of sub-licence). You must ensure that your Contribution does not infringe any copyright, design right or trademark of any other person and you warrant that you have the right to grant us the licence described in this paragraph. If you wish to complain about any Contribution to a Forum, please email us at [email protected] giving reasonable particulars about your complain

Viruses
We do not guarantee that our site will be secure or free from bugs or viruses.

You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform in order to access our site. You should use your own virus protection software.

You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.

Linking to our site
You may not create any link to our home page, without our prior express written consent.

Our site must not be framed on any other site.

Third party links and resources in our site
Where our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only.

We have no control over the contents of nor any liability for those sites or resources.

Applicable law
If you are a consumer, please note that these terms of use, its subject matter and its formation, are governed by English law. You and we both agree to that the courts of England and Wales will have non-exclusive jurisdiction. However, if you are a resident of Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in Northern Ireland, and if you are resident of Scotland, you may also bring proceedings in Scotland.

If you are a business, these terms of use, its subject matter and its formation (and any non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by English law. We both agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

Contact us
To contact us, please email [email protected].

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Latest

UEFA Europa Conference League Final 2024 accessibility tickets on sale now

Tickets are available to apply for until 11:00 CEST on Tuesday 16 April, so we recommend interested fans submit their applications as soon as possible
UEFA Europa League Final 2024 accessibility tickets on sale now

The sales phase will close at 11:00 CEST on Tuesday 16 April, so we recommend interested fans submit their applications as soon as possible
Accessibility tickets for the UEFA Champions League Final 2024 on sale now

Disabled spectators have until 11:00 CEST on Tuesday 16 April to apply for accessibility tickets
Celebrating World Autism Acceptance Week 2024

The event is held annually from 2 April to help to get people talking, raise wider awareness and break the stigma around autism

CAFE launches Week of Action small grants programme

Funding opportunities are available for disabled fans and DSAs wishing to take part in the CAFE Week of Action
Accessibility Tickets for FIFA Club World Cup 2019 on sale now

Accessibility Tickets to the FIFA Club World Cup 2019 are now on sale!
UEFA EURO 2020 second ticket sales phase opens

Apply for your tickets today – the sales phase will close on 18 December!
Ten years of success for disability partnership

UEFA and CAFE celebrate ten years of working together towards a game that is accessible, inclusive and welcoming for all
CAFE celebrates International Day of Disabled People 2019

Join us in celebrating this year's theme - 'The Future is Accessible'