The Minister of Justice at the time, Morten Bødskov, facilitated meetings and received feedback from several stakeholders – fans, police, ministry of justice and the League. An action plan “Gode Fodboldoplevelser for Alle” (Great Football experiences for All) was created. The main parts of the action plan put a focus on the need to introduce socio-preventive measures like dialogue with fans, event policing, good hosting principles, a plan to improve the training of security staff, and similar initiatives. However, one of the points in the plan also talks about the clubs “looking into the possibility of creating a joint access system”. Now, the Danish League read this as “we have to implement mandatory ID cards for away fans” - and this is where the story begins…
Tell your friends to join us and include the EFFC 2015 as part of your holiday and experience more of what the Emerald Isle has to offer. Our hosts, the Amalgamation of Northern Ireland Supporters Clubs (AONISC) and the Irish Football Association (IFA) are looking forward to show their hospitality in Belfast.
In response to a survey from a coalition of leading NGOs, sports organisations and trade unions, only one of the four candidates for the FIFA presidency has set out a plan to address human rights, labour rights and corruption issues if successful in their bid for the top job at world football’s governing body.
The Sport and Rights Alliance (SRA) sent a questionnaire to the candidates - Sepp Blatter, Luis Figo, Prince Ali bin Al Hussain and Michael van Praag - last month. It asked specific questions about abuses linked to the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and about the FIFA reform process. The FIFA presidential election takes place on 29 May in Zurich.
We believe that these latest revelations are symptomatic of deep-seated and systemic failures of governance within FIFA, an organisation that has lacked any transparency, accountability or genuine democratic processes under the ‘leadership’ of Sepp Blatter.
As Italian Fans Embassy team, having accompanied and supported Italian national team fans across Europe for many years now, we hereby express our deepest disagreement with the UEFA decision to have the next match between Croatia and Italy (which is a qualifying match for EURO 2016) on 12 June 2015 in Split played without spectators.
"These elections are a key opportunity for FIFA to turn over a new leaf in regard to human rights and corruption. FIFA has long been dogged by corruption scandals and other controversies, including migrant worker abuse linked to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. While the arrests of top FIFA officials in Zurich this week might force the organisation into finally dealing properly and effectively with allegedly endemic corruption, it has yet to demonstrate any real commitment to ensuring mega events such as Qatar 2022 are not built on a foundation of exploitation and abuse."
The election of a new president takes place on 29 May in Zurich. The candidates are Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan, Miguel Figo, Michael van Praag, and the incumbent president, Joseph “Sepp” Blatter.
In the questionnaire from the Sport and Rights Alliance (SRA), the candidates are asked whether they will systematically engage with civil society and if in the first 100 days of their presidency they intend to address corruption, labour issues and other human rights concerns around the Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 World Cups.
Rights abuses may taint the first European Games unless the European Olympic Committees and key National Olympic Committees urge the Azerbaijani government to release unjustly imprisoned journalists and activists, the Sport and Rights Alliance said today.
Azerbaijan is to host the first European Games in the capital, Baku, from 12 - 28 June 2015. An estimated 6,000 athletes from 50 countries are to participate in 20 sports. The games are organised under the auspices of the Olympic Movement. Apart from that, Baku was also selected to host football matches of the European Championships of UEFA in 2020 that will take place in 13 countries across the continent.
Of course, all contributions represent entirely subjective views of supporters and certainly do not claim to unveil the ultimate truth. But they can certainly paint a very honest picture of how individual fans experience their football back home.
The FSE Committee is still missing a sign of understanding from UEFA for the fact that punishing fans that haven’t done anything wrong whatsoever, is unjust, doesn’t meet judicial principles and is hence counter-productive to motivating fans in the important commitment against racism.
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