Representatives from the European University Sports Association (EUSA) attended FARE Network’s Equality and Inclusion in Football Conference on June 15th and 16th in Lisbon, Portugal.

The conference was co-funded by the Google's Impact Challenge and by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The main focus was identifying concerns and sharing good practices to promote equality and inclusion in football along the participants with collaborative learning sessions that included discussion and idea-sharing. This event also marked the conclusion of the Innovating Football Leadership: Innovation through Practice and Policy (iFlipp) project. 

The conference brought together 140 individuals from 13 countreis, representing various NGOs, organizations, and clubs. Over the two days, 15 sessions were feaured- The aim was to contribute to the attendees' expertise and work collaboratively to combat inequality in football and use the sport as a tool for social change, including addressing different forms of discrimination including racism, sexism, transphobia, and homophobia.

The European University Sports Association (EUSA) delegated a group of 7 people from Slovenia, as participants to the conference. 

The conference, moderated by Ms Mimi Fawaz of BBC World, kicked off on Thursday, June 15, 2023, with the opening presentation on the topic of Discrimination and Inclusion: The State of Play, what is Happening and Where? Ms Anika Leslie-Walker led a collective data mapping with the participants examining the biggest concerns in sports and how different sporting organizations and NGOs might assist address these issues. 

Following the opening session, the attendees were then given the option of attending one of the three parallel sessions. One workshop was on the topic of Tackling Anti-Semitism in Football, Refugee inclusion through football and Fundraising for Inclusion in Sport. 

The final session of the day was a leadership panel, which discussed what leadership is and how to practice it. Speakers included Mr John Oliveira, from OneWorld and Chair of the FARE Network; Ms Raluca Negulescu, representing UipPath Foundation in Romania; and William Gaillard, Senior Advisor at Portland. 

On Friday, June 16th, the day began with an introductory video from the Vice President of the European Commission, Mr Margaritis Schinas, talking about the topic, from the position of the European Commission and his personal thoughts and views. The opening speech for that day was given by Ms Teresa Romao, Secretary General of the Portugal Football Association, and followed by Mr John Olivieira, Chair of FARE Network, who introduced the topic of how football decision-makers are creating change and working for equality.

Next on the program was a presentation from Football and Human Rights: FIFA Human Rights Strategy and Focus, held by Mr Andreas Graf, Head of Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination at FIFA, in which he discussed how the governing football organisation addresses human rights, and their future plans for the organisation, including bidding procedures and regulations.

Following that, Mr Filippo Veglio, Senior Expert, Social & Environmental Sustainability at UEFA, gave a presentation on the topic of A new strategic approach in European football, where he discussed key points of strategic intent on sustainability, from strategy to collaborative actions; and showed several examples of UEFA actions addressing equality & inclusion challenges.

Furthermore, an engaging panel session was held, with speakers including Mr Andreas Graf, Mr Filippo Veglio, John Olivieira, and Ms Erica Puppo (FIFPRO), on the broader theme of equality and inclusion, as well as their perspectives on how each organisation and club can combat these issues in sports.

EUSA Communications and Project Manager, Mr Andrej Pisl was invited to give a presentation on Pride Month, sharing his inspiring insights and information about the history and importance of June as pride month.

Next on the agenda, sharing his inspiring life story, was Mr Mbo Mpenza, a former Belgium international footballer, who spoke about his path and how he dealt with prejudice and discrimination in sports.  

A section dedicated to the topic of discrimination in sports featured a panel discussion with several different football associations, with the moderator being Ms Claudia Krobitzsch from the DFB, Mr Ricardo Leao from the CBF, Mr Houssin Bezzai from the KNVB, and Mr Andrei Neacsu from the FRF, where they discussed their issues and problems in their respective FAs and demonstrated the overlaps of issues between all the FAs, demonstrating that these issues are global. They discussed their future steps in how to tackle these issues and deploy initiatives in cooperation with relevant stakeholders, such as the Antidiscrimination Monitoring System and the SLO programme.

Furthermore, a presentation on how behavioural science can help tackle discrimination, was given by Mr Ian Redpath, the behavioural scientist, who discussed how behavioural science might be used in sports.

A panel on what a fair intersex and trans policy for football looks like was moderated by  Ms Lou Englefield, Football vs. Homophobia, and included speakers, Dr Payoshni Mitra, Academic and campaigner Ms Natalie Washington. Natalie explored the definition of fairness; Dr Mitra cited examples of sex testing of players and timelines.

On the topic of glass ceilings and how can we over come them, 3 experts engaged in a panel discussion, including Mr Jacco Van Sterkenberg from Erasmus University of Rotterdam, Ms Reyes Bellver from Bellver Sports and Mr Sola Winley, representative of Major League Soccer from USA. During the panel, the data from the iFlipp project was shortly shared on behalf of Mr Sterkenberg, as well as possible solutions, best practices and strategy policies on how to increase and change represtnatation of women in leadership position, as well as how to tackle discimination in football and generally in sport. 

As a conclusion of the conference, Ms Raffaella Chiodo Karpinsky from UISP Nazionale, had the chance to present the last topic of the conference, speaking about Football: The game we love and how to implement best practices regarding discrimination on different basis. 

This presentation concluded the great and fruitfull two days conference which was follwed by the electoral General Assembly of the FARE Network on the following day.

Using the occasion of attending the conference in Lisbon, representatives of the EUSA Office had an informal visit of the FADU Office in Lisbon and met with the coordinator of the International Activities, Mr Marco Oliveira. 

For more information on the Equality and Inclusion Conference, please see https://farenet.org.