The LFP continues its commitment to improving stadium accessibility for people with disabilities

2 January 2024

The LFP continues its commitment to improving stadium accessibility for people with disabilities

To coincide with the Champions Trophy on Wednesday 3 January, the LFP is promoting accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities by launching its new campaign entitled “Au stade, les diffΓ©rences se font sur le terrain” (At the stadium, the differences are made on the pitch).

The Ligue de Football Professionnel (Professional Football League) is taking advantage of the 28th edition of the Champions Trophy on Wednesday 3 December to honour people with disabilities. For this match between Paris Saint-Germain and Toulouse FC, the LFP will be introducing innovations for visually impaired spectators.

Connected headsets will enable them to experience the match in better conditions:

  • Either thanks to an enlargement mode that makes it easier to zoom in on the pitch
  • Or thanks to the TV stream mode, which allows them to watch the images filmed by the cameras directly in the helmet.

Through its new dedicated campaign, the LFP is emphasising the importance of accessibility and inclusion, with the aim of offering the best possible welcome to people with disabilities in stadiums. The LFP’s commitment to working alongside professional clubs is embodied in the slogan “At the stadium, differences are made on the pitch”.

Through two motions for Ligue 1 Uber Eats and Ligue 2 BKT, the LFP is highlighting all types of spectators (disabled and able-bodied), represented by pictograms, including the four major disability families alongside other pictograms representing supporterism.

This “At the stadium, the differences are made on the pitch” campaign, launched at the Champions Trophy, will continue during the second half of the season, during which the LFP will be highlighting the best initiatives in terms of welcoming the public with disabilities to the stadiums of Ligue 1 Uber Eats and Ligue 2 BKT.

In response to this major challenge, the LFP has decided to incorporate accessibility into its CSR and stadium hospitality strategies respectively. At European level, the LFP is also very involved in this issue, as demonstrated by its participation in the Erasmus + project “Good Governance Needs Access and Inclusion”.

As the organiser of the Ligue 1 Uber Eats and Ligue 2 BKT competitions, the LFP is putting in place concrete actions that directly involve the clubs in order to achieve results on the ground. For example, thanks to the results of a survey carried out at the start of 2023, the LFP has included welcoming disabled spectators as part of its best practice for organising matches via the Operations Guide, which has been sent to all clubs.

As proof of its commitment to people with disabilities, the LFP has also included three accessibility-related criteria in the Club Licence (access to ticketing for people with disabilities, development of a dialogue between the club and supporters with disabilities, and publication of practical information on reception, services and accessibility on the club website). By highlighting this issue, clubs are being encouraged to take the matter in hand, to ensure that all spectators have access to the stadium under the best possible conditions. In addition, these evolving criteria enable the LFP to gradually increase the level of requirements, while providing clubs with the necessary operational support. To this end, in November the LFP organised three seminars for clubs on accessibility, focusing successively on ticketing, stadium access and relations with disabled supporters.

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