SafeSPORTevent

#SafeSPORTevent project comes in very challenging times for Europe and the World when the European Commission's main objective is the safety of all Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps participants and far abroad – protection of any further similar challenges that might come in future. As European Commission is working passionately to help in the fight with biosecurity emergencies such as #COVID19, the present project will provide practical scenarious and tools for sport organziations to ensure safety and security protocols, developed with and for sport entities that can ensure the proper reactions of sport managers, organizers and volunteers in case of security emergency.

#SafeSPORTevent project is totally in line with the specific objectives, pursued by the Erasmus+ Programme in the field of sport to develop and reinforce networks; increase their capacity to operate at transnational level; exchange good practices, confront ideas and methods in different areas relating to sport and physical activity. #SafeSPORTevent main aim is to protect athletes, especially the youngest, from health and safety hazards by improving training and competition conditions and especially during forcemajor security threads that need to be handled by specific security protocols that at this point of development do not exist in sport sector. The project will support the mobility of volunteers, coaches, managers and staff of non-profit sport organisations for educational purposes and will enrich their skills and knowledge for reaction in safety and security situations.

#SafeSPORTevent project aims to contribute to further human capacity development in sport through development of set of mobilities for sport managers, volunteers and administrators that will include both educational modules and modules for exchange of good practices in the field of safety and security in sport, with accent on sport events and gatherings of huge amount of people in sport environment. Project will use and further develop in the field of safety and security the non-formal educational methodology Education Through Sport /ETS/ that is an illustration of using sport as learning tool and thereby taking steps to stretch sport beyond the activity itself. ETS approach in the context of education, on the basis of non-formal education, experiential learning and active participation, is a conceptual model and a practical learning tool. The activities of this methodology assist and enrich the non-formal learning processes in the sport sector and will equip participating sport management and organization experts with new skills and instruments to be used at daily basis during sport events. ETS methodology (official Salto resource) is a structured pedagogical non-formal educational approach that works with sport and physical activity and refers to the development of key competences of individuals and groups, in order to contribute to personal development and sustainable social transformation with a main goal - active citizenship.

The practical focus of the project is to develop skills and knowledge through educational mobility of sport managers, volunteers and administrators in order to empower them to co-create and use specific protocols for safety and security, tailored for sport events and gatherings of huge groups of people in sport environment. Through increased educational possibilities in the field of safety and security in sport, #SafeSPORTevent project would make positive change in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey as direct project beneficiaries, but also all over Europe as project deliverables will be freely shared with the sport community.

Terrorism is another global threat that will be reflected by the #SafeSPORTevent project. We have witnessed different terrorist attacks carried out in different countries and by different methods. Terrorist attacks can be carried out by terrorist groups, by individual terrorists, or by radicalized individuals. The weapons used can be different - firearms, bombs, knives or ordinary things like cars, etc. Despite improved cooperation between the security services and successes in the fight against terrorism, in most cases it is difficult to determine where, when and by what means a terrorist attack will be carried out. In most cases, terrorists choose places where more people are gathered and methods that will attract the public's attention. It is therefore important to create prevention mechanisms. This project aims to analyze the link between terrorism and sporting events and to provide an understanding of possible prevention measures so as to prevent the act of terrorism itself and / or minimize its effects.

Major sports events, and especially the Olympics, provide terrorist organisations with opportunities for generating enormous international publicity for their demands. Terrorism seeks to threaten the society and to attract media attention. The sport events provide an avenue through which to communicate terrorists’ message to as wide an audience as possible. Big sport events in general are likely to be well protected but it still represents an attractive target for terrorists who would aim to benefit from the global exposure of any attack and to disrupt the host country’s attempt to deliver a ‘safe and secure’ games. Other sports events and sportspeople are less protected and there have been a number of recent attacks and threats against such targets.

Based on the mentioned problems, stated in the aforementioned analysis of the policies and actions, taken on EU level and considering the need of empowering sport managers, administrators and volunteers to cooperate together, to have approved actions and reactions, to be equipped with innovative skills and knowledge, the current project is aiming to find the way of filling this gap, strongly expressed by each partner in the present consortium and to find possibilities to ensure proper reaction in any forcemajor situation during sport events at national and European level. The main added value of this project will be: quality educational mobility of sport managers, organizers and volunteers to exchange good practices between 4 countries that are strongly affected by previous cases of forcemajor situations during sport events (even through small scale security threats such as fans violence and intolerance that might evolve in security specific situation) and huge gap and lack of proper instruments to prevent (if possible) and react in forcemajor situation with focus on safety and security of athletes, sport organizations staff and fans. Through the present project, the consortium strongly aims to contribute for this alarming problem and to do their best to further empower sport experts. The #SafeSPORTevent project will also straightened cooperation between the participating organization’s and their empowered staff; exchange of good practices in the field of EU funding in sport as we have experienced organizations as partners in the present project; new tools and instruments to be used from sport clubs and organizations across EU in the field of safety and security during sport events; further development and enrichment of Education through sport with new activities that will be published as Open Educational Resource and will be available for sport organizations at local, national and European level, as well to the educational institutions, local authorities, NGO’s, national authorities in their daily work. In the same time, by empowering the participating organizations we will give them unique opportunity to experience working with more sport clubs and organizations in their environments and pass together with them through the process of learning on practice how to ensure safe sport events in different environments.


Through the project activities, we aim to empower sport managers, administrators and volunteers in sport entities to:
• Be prepared on the security aspects of the organization of sport events at grassroots and professional level in order to ensure safety and security of participants, fans and supporters;
• Co-create together good practices toolkit of Safe Sport Event;
• Take part in an international training Complex security environment and Sport;
• Implement local training courses as replication of the international TC in order to ensure snowfall effect;
• Ensure good practices transfer between project partners;
• Develop practical brochures (protocols) for Safe Sport Event that sport organizations can use as guide during the organization of local/national/international sport events.

The current small collaborative partnership will implement various activities on local, national and international level; will focus in transfer on knowledge through educational mobilities of sport managers, administrators and volunteers, promotion and sharing good practices in the field of safety and security during sport events. #SafeSPORTevent will add to the existing knowledge, know-how and practices of participating directly and indirectly sport organizations and persons involved in project activities and outputs. All activities we will hold by this project will be available and can be used as OER (open educational resources) to the interested stakeholders.

Main objectives, we will focus in the project are:
• Ensure educational mobility of sport managers, administrators and volunteers and transfer of good practices between European countries (EU and Western Balkans);
• Ensuring new instruments and tools for sport managers, administrators and volunteers to prevent (if possible) and react during forcemajor events in sport field (during championships for example);
• Create specific security protocols for reaction in forcemajor situations that will be available for sport sector in EU;
• Further development of Education through sport methodology that will be enriched with new activities that will aim to ensure safety and security during sport events that will be gathered in practical edition, available as Open Educational Recourse;
• Increased capacity in the participating organizations that will lead to wider possibility to deliver quality products to the target groups they work on daily basis;
• By the planned dissemination events, we will increase attention to safety and security in sport (and especially during sport events);
• Create a new network of organizations working together at EU level to reach common goal – ensure safe and secure environment during sport events and proper reaction of involved sport managers, administrators and volunteers during sport gatherings;
• Raise awareness on the added value of sport and physical activities in relation to the personal, professional and social development of individuals through all planned project activities;
• Raise awareness on the importance of health-enhancing effects of physical activity through all planned project activities.
• Disseminate the accumulated knowledge and expertise of the partnership, its newly developed tools and best practices to inspire and promote further collaborations and synergies on the related topics;

The direct target group of the #SafeSPORTevent project is sport managers, administrators and volunteers, involved in sport entities that organize sport events at different level (national and international) and communicate with all involved stakeholders on the topic – sport organizations, athletes, sport facilities, security authorities, fans (indirect project target group) in partner countries. The final beneficiaries of the project are both partner organizations that will be empowered to further transmit the knowhow on security reaction during forcemajor situations at sport events Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, recruited sport managers, administrators and volunteers that will be engaged in local and international educational activities.

The following Outputs will be developed to achieve the project aims mentioned above:
• Good practices toolkit edition Safe Sport Event including practical brochures (protocols) for Safe Sport Event that sport organizations can use as guide during the organization of local/national/international sport events and innovative Education Through Sport activities with focus on safety and security (non-formal educational activities);
• Empowered sport managers, administrators and volunteers in 2 European Union, 1 Programme country and 1 Western Balkans country to work focussely for empowerment of safety and security in sport, and especially during sport events;
• Delivered international training Complex security environment and Sport and implemented local training courses as replication of the international TC in order to ensure snowfall effect;

#SafeSPORTevent results:
• Result 1
Edition Good practices toolkit edition Safe Sport Event including practical brochures (protocols) for Safe Sport Event with specific safety and security protocols that will ensure proper reaction of sport realted staff, involved in events management, including new non-formal educational activities, focussed on safety and security that can be used to teach sport entities employees, volunteers and athletes. The toolkit will include practical security protocols (brouchures) that can be used separately or together with the toolkit to ensure that the basic safety rules are followed in any forcemajor situation that will guarantee safety of groups in sport facilities. The edition will be available online on the project webpage as guidance for other EU sport clubs and stakeholders in English language;

• Result 2
#SafeSPORTevent will empower sport managers, administrators and volunteers from 4 countries to use new tools and instuments in their work during sport events at national and international level. Participating in project educational mobilities and activities, sport managers, administrators and volunteers will have also the opportunity to exchange ideas and good practices with other sport staff, involved in event management from different points of Europe.

• Result 3
Project will ensure further development of safety and security topic in sport through practical materials that will be developed during project lifetime and will allow also sport entities not involved in the project itself to use and further adapt to fit their reality that will increase the usability of project deliverables and will empower people from the local communities to use specific safety reccommendations during their events.

• Result 4
Multinational and multicultural exchange for the participating sport managers, administrators and volunteers during the transnational meetings and their experience as EU team will contribute to the European identity in the partner countries – 2 European Union, 1 Programme country and 1 Western Balkans country. Those kind of activities are bringing direct effect on the local groups they work with to be brought closer and closer to the common EU identity.

• Result 5
This project will raise awareness on the high demand of urgent actions for ensuring safety and security during sport events in the European societies. Partners will inform local and national stakeholders through project website, project partners web site, EACEA dissemination platform and social media (Facebook). This result would not be possible in one country solely both in economic and practical aspect.