Football for Equality

Positive feedback

During their stay in Innsbruck the experts underlined the fact that fan work with only one full-time social worker is a big problem. But all participants agreed that there is good cooperation between fans, FC Wacker Innsbruck, the stadium security and Fanarbeit in Innsbruck which unfortunately is not the standard in many cities. In this context the fan workers also stressed that the relationship with the Wacker fans is very positive due to this common work.

Professionalisation in Europe

In this working group of the EU project there are the oldest German fan project from Bremen (founded in 1981) and the two "young" projects from Liberec (CZE) and Innsbruck. During the first study visit in January this year, the participants visited the fan project in Bremen and got to know their long story of successful work with football fans.

With the participation in this project especially Fanarbeit Innsbruck is eager to get an additional impulse to assure and enhance the quality of their work. In this context Armin Weber, the head of the fan work in Innsruck said: "For Innsbruck and Austria this EU project is a great opportunity in the development and establishment of professional work with fans. I want to thank for the visit and especially for the constructive feedback to work with fans in Innsbruck. "

To complete the project "pro supporters - connecting fan projects" there will be a study visit in Liberec (3-5 May) and a European Seminar in Vienna (3-4 June) where the results and the criteria catalogue will be presented to the public.

The study visit was organised in the framework of the EU-project „pro supporters – prevention through empowerment“ that is lead and coordinated by FairPlay and supported by the European Commission in the field of prevention of and fight against violence and intolerance in sport.