TACKLE | Environmental issues at the heart of football games with the launch of the TACKLE project

The world of football is very actively promoting several aspects related to sustainability, such as anti-discrimination and accessibility/disability. However, environmental issues such as waste management, mobility, lightening, fans environmental awareness and environmental governance system of football associations and clubs are today offering strong improvement margins and opportunities. To respond to this challenge, the TACKLE (Teaming up for a conscious kick for the Legacy of Environment) project, co-funded by the European Commission under the Life Environment programme, has been launched.

Pisa, Italy – On 4 and 5 October 2018, the Institute of Management of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, lead partner of TACKLE, hosted the kick off meeting of the project. It was attended by all other partners, namely: three European National Football Associations, FIGC - Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (Italy), FRF - Federatia Romana de Fotbal (Romania) and SvFF - Svenska Fotbollförbundet (Sweden), an independent pan-European media network specialised in EU policies, Euractiv, the Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling and sustainable Resource management, ACR+, and two its members, LIPOR and AMIU, the waste management operators of the cities of Porto (Portugal) and Genoa (Italy), respectively.

The three-year long TACKLE project aims at improving the environmental management of football matches and the overall level of awareness and attention toward environmental issues in the football sector, engaging its most relevant stakeholders - National Football Associations, Football Clubs, Stadiums managers and Supporters. In sight of the forthcoming European Football Championship, which will be played in 12 different European countries, TACKLE will develop a set of Environmental Management Guidelines to be tested in some of the stadiums that will host the matches. To this end, extensive support has been collected from UEFA and 7 other European National Associations, guaranteeing that they will cooperate for ensuring a wider dissemination and application of the Guidelines.

Key methods and approaches to adopt in the first activities of the project were already discussed during the fruitful kick off meeting. ACR+, in addition to working on the development of Environmental Management Guidelines, will conduct the pilot testing phase, supporting stadium managers in the application of the Guidelines during sports events, some of them being part of the forthcoming European Football Championship.

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For more information:
Francesco Lembo
fl@acrplus.org |+32 2 234 65 00
www.acrplus.org
 

This project has received funding from the European Union’s LIFE programme under grant agreement LIFE17 GIE/IT/000611 TACKLE