Make Amateur Sport Tolerant Eliminating Discrimination

Background Amateur sport is an activity capable of conveying civic, democratic and social values of inclusiveness, tolerance and fair play but it can also be an arena for the expression of all kinds of discrimination. Due to their hyper-local nature, discriminatory issues in amateur sport must be addressed from the local level. MATCH-SPORT supports local authorities and sports clubs in working together on reducing discriminatory violence in amateur sport through the exchange of expertise and practices. Objectives The main objective of the project was to analyse the phenomenon of violence, and particularly discriminatory violence in amateur sport, and how European, national and local policies respond to them. The project also offered training and support to local authorities and local sport clubs to act against the phenomenon and develop specific actions to target it. Finally, it was essential to reach a broader audience with the project messages through an online communication campaign. Implementation The project implementation was divided into 5 phases: 1. Understanding the phenomenon and setting-up the project recommendations2. Identification of local needs and existing resources 3. Creation and implementation of capacity building programmes based on the established principles4. Raising awareness on the phenomenon and the importance to counter it at the grass-roots level5. Monitoring and evaluating the implementation through regular meetings (both physical and online) Achievements The project has successfully reached the following results: 1) state-of-the-art research, analysing the phenomenon of discriminatory violence through the 7 countries; 2) 15 good practice sheets; 3) the realisation of training pilot actions and the creation of an outline for a 1-day online capacity-building programme adaptable to the local priorities; 3) social media awareness-raising campaign; and 4) project brochure detailing the project’s guiding principles, main results and recommendations.