As part of Erasmus+ project Promoting Gender Equality in Sports – PROGRES, a round table on gender equality and equity in sport, with supporting events, was held in Bucharest on March 17.

At the event, the project was presented by Mr Peter Busuttil from Malta Football Association. Ms Andreea Rusu from FILIA presented one of the core outputs of the PROGRES project - a study entitled Analysing and Addressing Gender Gaps in Sport, sharing the main results.



Ms Maya Lucia, young football player from Malta, shared her personal story, experiences, and expectations regarding the gender gap in football.



Ms Irina Giurgiu from the Romanian Football Federation talked about the experiences as the head of women football at the federation, coach of a female football club ACS Dream Team Bucharest, as well as a former handball and football player herself.



In the discussions, some good practices were presented as well, including UEFA’s Playmakers initiative, introducing football to young girls, creating environments for girls to feel safe and supported. As a very positive signal, the EU launched this week a strategic action plan and recommendations Towards More Gender Equality in Sport for the European Commission, EU Member States, national and international sports bodies and grassroots organisations achieve a more equitable gender balance in sport. Next steps of the project were discussed as well, focusing on the development of a gender mainstreaming tool and national trainings.



The hybrid event was followed by a press conference, highlighting the main points and challenges, as well as with a friendly football match in the afternoon.



A day prior, on March 16, partners of the project met for a working meeting, discussing the preparations of the planned educational tool with different modules, as well as the trainings and other events, to be held in the partner countries.



The PROGRES project aims to promote gender equality, encourage social inclusion and equal opportunities in the sports sector and specifically in football, by promoting gender mainstreaming.



The project, supported by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, is led by the Malta Football Association (MLT), with the support of partners Norwegian Football Federation (NOR), Football Federation of North Macedonia (MKD), Centrul FILIA (ROU), TREK (GRE), University of Modena and Reggio Emilia  (ITA), and the EUSA Institute (SLO).



For more information about the project, please see the official website https://progresproject.eu and follow the activities on the Facebook, Instagram and/or LinkedIn profiles.