European Football Fans jointly elect Committee for the first time to represent fans‘ interests at European level
Hamburg, 19 July 2009 - At the 2nd European Football Fans‘ Congress, hosted by the Football Supporters International network (FSI) over the weekend, an executive board for the European fans’ network was elected for the first time.
In future, this first, independent European fans’ body wants to act as the voice for fans at European level, e.g. towards UEFA and the European Commission, amongst others. Ten candidates stood for election for eight seats. The people elected are Kevin Miles and Dave Boyle from England, Emilio Abejón from Spain, Christina Magnussen from Norway, Michal Riecansky from Slovakia, Shay Golub from Israel, the Belgian Dirk Vos and Tam Ferry from Scotland, all of whom are representatives of national fans’ organizations back in their home countries.
Furthermore, it was announced that the Football Supporters International network (FSI) will organize and coordinate a 3 year project called “Fans Embassies go East” involving partners from more than 16 European countries to further develop so-called fans’ embassy services and fans’ networks in this area, with a particular focus on Eastern Europe and EURO2012 in Poland and the Ukraine. The UEFA Executive Committee decided to grant a project application of FSI with an overall budget of about 500.000€.
The event was organized in cooperation with the HSV Supporters Club, several fans’ groups of the FC St.Pauli and together with both fans’ projects and the clubs themselves. More than 350 representatives from 29 countries took part. Apart from amendments to the statutes that were made and adopted with a great majority as the network will be a registered member association based in Hamburg/Germany, several workshops took place on topics such as “Kick-off times”, “Policing in football”, “Club licensing” or “Involvement of minority groups in football fan culture”, the results of which will be further elaborated in working groups after the congress.
And finally, the network was renamed to Football Supporters Europe (FSE), as its core activities should take place in the member states of UEFA.
The European Fans’ Congress was also supported by UEFA, whilst the European football association acknowledges the need for the independence of the network. William Gaillard, personal advisor to UEFA president Michel Platini, gave the keynote speech. Participation in the congress was free of charge, the congress had been sold out for weeks.
