While several remaining pilot tests are waiting for football supporters to be allowed again in stadiums in order to be completed and fully assessed, the project now focuses on capacity building within the participation national football associations (FA).

The Italian, Swedish and Romanian FAs as direct project beneficiaries, but also the Royal Belgian FA as an associated partner are participating in the series of five training modules which are aiming at increasing the skills and knowledge of these FAs when it comes to environmental management within their own organisations. The trainings cover a wide array of topics such as various standards, green procurement, environmental monitoring and reporting, certifications and more. With three training behind, two more are left to be organised in April.

While the capacity building activities are reaching their end another phase of the project is being planned. This phase will look at the exploitation of all the results and conclusions achieved through dozens of pilot tests across 11 pilot stadiums which were taking place since autumn 2019. Thanks to a comprehensive set of reports, observations, facts and figures, the project will now go beyond its own framework and reach out to other football clubs and associations as well as local and regional authorities in order to present the challenges and solutions in making the game of football more sustainable through a set of local dissemination events. ACR+, who has been leading and overseeing the pilot tests across Europe is now already working on an event to take place in Brussels later this year.