Football Supporters Europe (FSE) joined SAFER project partners in Breda, The Netherlands, on 19-20 February 2024 for an in-person meeting to touch base on milestones reached and the next steps.
UPDATE: The SAFER Survey is now available in French, in addition to English, Danish, Dutch, German, Italian, Polish, and Portuguese.
The meeting, which was the second held since the Erasmus+ project launched in April 2023, was hosted by the European Football for Development Network (EFDN).
SAFER sees supporters and a cross-section of experts and football stakeholders working together to tackle gender-based violence and discrimination in the game by establishing prevention and remedy mechanisms for football fans and other match attendees.
Day one of the meeting began with a review of the activities to date, followed by a presentation from the DFB on the integration of SAFER into the framework of EURO 2024. During the afternoon, Atletico San Lorenzo fed back to the group following the pilot site visit conducted by FSE in early June 2023. This was followed by a discussion on the significant progress made in integrating the project into elements of the UEFA EURO 2024 tournament later this summer.
The final day of the meeting played host to a review of the initial data gathered via the SAFER survey, and an outline of the next steps for the project’s research phase. The day concluded with a discussion among partners about their experience of the project so far.
Following the meeting, FSE’s Head of Policy Martin Endemann said; “Nine months on since the project began, it’s very encouraging to see the momentum building by the partners. Several pilot site visits will be taking place in the coming months, and the research phase is continuing. The SAFER survey is now available in French, and the more responses we receive, the better we can prepare the project’s activities to take place through the remainder of the activities.”
The coming months will see the beginning of preparations for the implementation of the SAFER project activities during EURO 2024, which followed by evaluation of activities during the tournament later in 2024.
FSE would like to thank all partners for their time in Breda and to EFDN for their hospitality.
Find out more about SAFER project at its dedicated website here.