More than Football Award 2022 shortlist announced

More than Football Award 2022 shortlist announced

The European Football for Development Network (EFDN) is proud to present the four clubs and their respective projects which have been selected for the shortlist of the More than Football Award 2022. FC Twente, Newcastle United, Northampton Town FC and Athletic Club de Bilbao made it to the ‘final four’. The winner receives not only recognition for having implemented the most innovative and impactful Community and Social Responsibility programme in European football, but also wins a complete branded Mini-Pitch System modular sports solution which will be developed in partnership between the winning organisation, EFDN, and sponsor Musco Lighting.

The four clubs who made it to the shortlist are invited to present their project during the 18th Conference in Budapest. Attendees of the event will vote for their favorite project and the winner will be announced during the More than Football Award Gala Dinner on Tuesday, November 15th.

After the More than Football Action Weeks this spring, we received many good applications. Initially, a longlist of 10 clubs was announced with also Juventus FC, VFL Wolfsburg, SV Werder Bremen, Fundación Alcoraz of SD Huesca, Feyenoord Rotterdam and Falkirk FC Foundation on it. These four projects will compete for the Morethanfootball Award 2022 powered by Musco:

FC Twente – Senior community FC Twente

FC Twente hosts multiple activities with a primary focus on increasing the social interaction between seniors, which ultimately aims to reduce loneliness. Under the name of several smaller projects, they provide several activities with customization for various target groups among seniors in their region.

The main project objectives are:

• Reducing loneliness among elderly people in the Twente region
• Creating social groups for seniors in Twente
• Offering social (physical) activities for seniors

Newcastle United Foundation – NUCASTLE – Building a United Future

NUCASTLE is a historic project for Newcastle United Foundation and prospective partners like Football Foundation and Newcastle Building Society who have played a crucial role in making it happen. It is not just about bricks and mortar; it is about transforming lives, giving a community a new lease of life and changing it for the better, forever. By bringing an unused community centre back into use, NUCASTLE is now a vibrant, state-of-the-art hub for sport, education and wellbeing, with programmes delivered by an award-winning Foundation team and partners.  

The main project objectives are:

• Increase the health and well-being of participants, offer a safe, structured environment for young people to take part in sport reducing anti-social behaviour and will help disadvantaged communities further develop their life skills, helping break the cycle of poverty.
• Increase participation in physical activity for disabled people. A number of existing weekly sessions have already moved to NUCASTLE, giving disabled children and adults an accessible and well suited space to play within and the opportunity to feel more socially included.
• Provide a regional career hub, delivering careers, enterprise and employability to learners and giving local employers direct access to better qualified and skilled young people.

Northampton Town FC Community Trust – Tackling Loneliness

Within just two days of the first lockdown Northampton Town FC Community Trust developed a project set out to support older fans who may be at risk of loneliness or isolation brought about by COVID and government lockdowns. The project has supported 1210 people aged 50+ to reduce feeling of loneliness and improve their mental health and well being.

The impact it has been made is wide reaching, the caste study video of Audrey outlines one of many stories of impact they have made where the project has reduced feelings of loneliness and isolation, helped develop new friendships and improve people’s mental health and wellbeing.

Athletic Club de Bilbao – Culture and Football

Athletic Club, through its foundation, is the only club in the world which continuously organises cultural activities in its city.  Every year for more than ten years, Athletic Club has put on a film festival and a literature festival.

In recent years, the Athletic Club Foundation has scheduled more than 200 free cultural events, including art exhibitions, improvised poetry performances in Basque, reading clubs in local schools, film screenings, creative short films and much more. It is a project which has been praised and copied all around the world. 

The main project objectives are:

• Collaborate in the educational process for the community
• Claiming a better football 
• Encourage reading among young people 
• Bringing football and culture audiences closer together 
• Help in the educational process of young players

Previous Award Winners:

2019 Shakhtar Donetsk
2020 Club Brugge
2021 Big Hearts of Heart of Midlothian

Follow our EFDN social media channels for more updates on the award and CSR in football.