FoF - Future of Football

Future of Football (FoF) is an international initiative of football fans and their organisations to invest in young people’s democratic participation in the member-run football clubs (MRFCs) they support. It seeks youth well-being and sees football as a civic space for change. Workplan: (1) assess barriers and enablers for youth democratic engagement in MRFCs. WP2 includes a literature scan, country template analysis, needs analysis and observatory; (2) co-design a set of educational methods to address these. WP3 includes workshops of youth participation experts and practitioners for an iterative design process with ongoing mentoring for local implementers; (3) implement the methods (as a toolkit) in local youth participation activities. WP4 includes local co-creation activities, coordinated in National Working Groups (NWGs) with local representation, collaborating on a shared data gathering and co-design platform to co-create and adapt national toolkits; (4) sustain the effective democratic youth participation practices across the football sector, at all levels. WP5 includes stakeholder mapping and engagement, national and European youth fan forums and dissemination tools and strategy. WP1, ensuring effective project management, includes technical coordination, quality assurance & cross-cutting activities on monitoring, evaluation and communication. Beneficiaries: (1) Young people who develop social and civic skills, inclusive access to networks and capacity to drive change; (2) Football supporters organisations, members & MRFCs who acquire new evidence on democratic governance and develop effective strategies on local youth activism and values, democratisation and internationalisation; (3) Stakeholders who get transferable methodological guidance on effective and democratic youth participation; and (4) Local communities who benefit from local interventions (e.g. on environmental sustainability, social inclusion, remembrance) and gain democratic access in MRFCs.