Football has more than just two goals

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Country: Netherlands

Organization: Stichting Meer Dan Voetbal

Sport - Soccer

Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2004

Project URL: http://www.meerdanvoetbal.nl

Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions

Main barrier addressed: Sport is trivialized
Main insight addressed: Use sport to build character

What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - Using the positive forces of pro-football for social goals, which will improve the image of football and which will lead to an impulse

Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - Football Association), government, social organizations, and football sponsors. The Stichting Meer dan Voetbal performs the following role:

? support clubs in the execution of their social policy by giving advice, sharing knowledge, and uniting several parties of a club;
? organizes national, club exceeding projects within the following three themes: social inclusion, health and fair play.
? national visibility of the activities of the clubs and projects: strength grows by way of joined visibility.

We are unique because there is no where else in the world a foundation, founded by the most important football organizations, who teaches the football clubs how to execute their social responsibility. By doing this, our foundation is nothing more than a tool to accomplish that all clubs have a structural social policy. We are also unique because of our innovation projects where we use the power of football for so many different social goals.

What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change? - The biggest problem which we hope to change is the:
? negative behavior of football players, they have to understand that they are a role model and that their behavior will be copied by many fans (especially children);
? clubs not taking there social responsibility, the clubs have an important role in their local (sometimes national) environment.
? not using the power of football. It is a pity not to use the impact that football (players and clubs) can create. Therefore we use the players and clubs to get attention for (solving)

Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - The Stichting Meer dan Voetbal will perform the following activities this year to stimulate the social commitment of professional football:

Social club of the year and social annual report
Each year, the Foundation organizes a symposium about the theme football and society. These themes show us the results from the previous year and teach us lessons for the future. In addition, the social club/project of the year is chosen and issued an award. The symposium is the place where parties meet each other to join forces.

CSR Club day
The foundation organizes an informative club day for all club employees that are involved in social policy with a focus on the optimization of collaboration. On this day, guidelines are provided, “best practices” are shown, presentations about the corporate social responsibility and the role of football are given, and all those involved work on intercommunication between the clubs.

Project sportiviteit & respect
The standards and values within Dutch society are under a lot of pressure. The increased “bad mentality” also shows through in football. The current problems demand a broad and unanimous response from football itself. Meer dan Voetbal, together with VVCS, the KNVB, clubs, and referees will start a national campaign to improve the behavior on and off the fields. The project will start with the signing of the charter. We will also participate in the European week against racism.

Project 'Scoren voor Gezondheid'
'Scoren voor gezondheid' is a project in which football players from the Premier League will encourage children from elementary schools to lead a healthy lifestyle. They will provide a good example in exercising and a diet rich in healthy food. The project will start with a clinical, condition, and health test in or around the stadium of the Premier League club. The children will sign a contract with one of the players and promise to follow the project program for 20 weeks and to keep a log. The school will discuss seven themes in the same period that deal with sufficient exercise and a healthy diet. The children will finish the project with a second condition and health test at the football club after which they will receive a diploma.

Project Tijd voor sport
Sports can stimulate the integration of various cultures. The project 'Participation of the ethnic minority youth in sports' will stimulate (ethnic minors) youngsters and their parents to become a member of a football association. Among others, Ruud van Nistelrooij, Romeo Castelen, Theo Janssen, Romano Denneboom, and Khalid Boulahrouz have linked themselves as ambassadors to this project. The project is an initiative of the Ministry of Public Health, Well being, and Sports and will be organized in cooperation with the KNVB and Johan Cruyff Foundation. The official kick-off will take place in the summer of 2007.

Project 'niemand buitenspel'
Youngsters that are a large distance away from the job market have trouble finding a suitable job. Professional football clubs can, by way of their role in the local society and by the respect paid to them, often help these children in finding a suitable job. Together with the club and its sponsors, young football fans are coached toward an education/position at one of the companies that are connected to the club.

Homeless World Cup
The goal of the Homeless World Cup is to give the homeless and roofless people a chance in society. By playing sports, homeless and roofless people will regain regularity to their lives, build social contacts, and learn to deal with rules and obligations and live healthier. Significant results have been achieved since the start of this global project in 2003. Meer dan Voetbal, in collaboration with the KNVB, Nike, and the Salvation Army will start a national competition in

How do you plan to grow your innovation? - In the first years we make football clubs and players acquaintance with their social role. We initiated and carried out projects. In the future we want to create that clubs are taking their responsibility by theme selves and that they understand that it is helpful to act social and that it brings success to the club and to the society.

Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - the clubs to believe that they can make a difference in this world and that CSR is also in favour of themselves.

What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries? - ? The clubs will have advantage of their own projects. The clubs will achieve a much more positive image as results of their actions. Nowadays the clubs have got a slightly negative image as a cause of hooliganism, racism, overpaid players and players who don’t show respect for each other. If a club will implement a project to solve social problems, they show that they care for their community and its problems. As a result people in the community will look at a club through other (more positive) glasses.
? The other group of beneficiaries are the people in the community. They are participating in the projects or profit of the impulse football gives to a social issue.

How many people have you served directly? About 5000 people participate in our projects on a yearly bases and we reach about whole football minded Netherlands with the communication of our projects on national television (especially in sport programs).
How many people have you served indirectly? This field has not been completed

Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation? - we promote 'live healthy' by publishing a newspaper (one million copy's) over health and the importance of sports. Professional football players tell how they live healthy and they give suggestions to the people (mainly children).

What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact? - That the team results are always more important news than the social message of a football club.

How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - We are financed by the Dutch Football association, all the professional football clubs, the national government and by social funds

If known, provide information on your finances and organization. - Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff. We have enough budget to execute our projects. To finance our other two tasks, club support and communication is more difficult. When we want to give an impulse to the social responsibility of clubs, we need to more budget for club support and communication.
There are seven people working fulltime for our foundation. About three of them work on projects, the other four on club support, management and communication.

What is the potential demand for your innovation? - This field has not been completed

What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - ? continuity. Financial support of partners (especially with projects) isn't for a long time set and therefore we can't make policy for a long term. We just don't know if we can finance specific activities over the years.
? we have got just a few partners. When a partner decides he doesn't want to finance us any longer, is has large consequences for our budget.
? we don't have enough free budget.

What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - The Stichting Meer dan Voetbal comprises a daily organization of seven employees, which are supported by several interns. Edu Jansing is the CEO of the Foundation. Our team includes two ladies and four men, who all have affinity with football in the society.

The board of the foundation includes Benk Korthals, Michael van Praag, Frans Derks, Map Nihom, Fred Habold, Z.H. Prins Pieter-Christiaan van Oranje-Nassau, van Vollenhoven, and Paul Smits. The board has a lot of experience in the world of football. For example: Mr. van Praag has been the president of Ajax and is know the president of the Dutch Premier League and Mr. Derks is a famous old referee and nowadays president of the Dutch First League.

Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material. - This field has not been completed

Contact Information:

Wanda Kingma
This field has not been completed
Stichting Meer Dan Voetbal
(NGO)

Submitted by: Wanda Kingma