Event: PROMOTING ACTIVE LIFESTYLES TO IMPROVE PUBLIC HEALTH DELIVERED THROUGH PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL CLUBS
Date: 31st October 2018
Venue: Scotland House, Rond-Point Schuman 6, 1040 Brussels, Belgium
Partners from the EU-funded ‘European Football Fans in Training (EuroFIT)’ programme will be launching EuroFIT to Europe’s football community on 31st October 2018.
Funded by the European Commission’s FP7-research programme, EuroFIT harnesses the loyalty that many football fans feel to their club to attract them to a lifestyle change programme delivered by community coaches in the club’s stadium. Building upon the Football Fans in Training programme used in Scotland, nine universities have developed this scientifically rigorous, European programme through inter-sectoral collaboration with over 20 leading football clubs in the UK, Netherlands, Norway and Portugal.
EuroFIT has already been a major success, using cutting-edge behavioural science and technology in a bid to prevent, rather than treat, chronic ill health, changing the lives of over 1,100 fans who have made long-term, sustainable, changed to their lifestyles. But this is just the start.
New football clubs are now adopting the programme, which has already become a key component of the Portuguese Government’s national physical activity strategy, owing to its evidence-based approach and clinically proven effectiveness. At the event in Brussels, we will launch a scaled-up implementation of EuroFIT, as an evidence-based, quality-assured programme that is now available under license for football clubs and leagues across Europe. The launch event is supported by UEFA, with representatives from football leagues, clubs and European institutions in attendance.
Learn more about EuroFIT here: www.eurofitfp7.eu
Find a draft programme for the launch here.
You can follow the project on Twitter @eurofitfp7 and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/eurofitfp7/
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 602170. The material presented and views expressed here are the responsibility of the author(s) only. The EU Commission takes no responsibility for any use made of the information set out.