Oct 5, 2018
Final Executive Board’s meeting of 2018 has taken place on the 2nd of October, at GIBA’s office in Bologna, Italy.
The Board members have discussed several important topics, including new Common Position Paper which will be published soon, potential cooperation with Volleyball Leagues Association, basketball organizing project with UNI Europa, ongoing and future Erasmus+ projects, relations with European institutions and cooperation with World Players Association.
First meeting of 2019 will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Oct 5, 2018
On 24-25th of September 2018, EU Athletes has taken part in the 3rd Macolin Conference organized by the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. The event brought together over 160 participants from 37 countries and 23 international stakeholders.
EU Athletes has been actively involved in the Macolin Process, particularly by coordinating and representing athlete and player organizations positions within the Sport Movement Group of actors. Paulina Tomczyk, the General Secretary of EU Athletes, who was present at the conference, chaired a workshop dedicated to the Sport Movement group of actors and addressed the participants in the final session to present athletes’ perspective:
“In the context of Erasmus+ project PROtect Integrity Plus, currently coordinated by EU Athletes, we focus strongly on prevention, education and reporting. Athlete organizations are doing their part of work but nobody can tackle match-fixing on their own. Experiences in different countries show that properly composed and operational National Platforms, with the active involvement of player unions, are truly beneficial for the fight against match-fixing. For this reason we are supportive of the efforts from Council of Europe and Group of Copenhagen in terms of national and international cooperation.”
During the conference, concrete priorities were identified, which will fuel the collective effort to be organised within the next phase of the “Macolin Roadmap”.
Sep 13, 2018
EU Athletes representation, composed of Paulina Tomczyk (General Secretary), Vasilis Minoudis (HPVPA) and Stijn Boeykens (ACV Sporta) was hosted by the Vollayball Leagues Association (VLA) during its meeting in Athens, Greece, on the 11th of September 2018.
VLA was set up earlier this year and brings together national volleyball leagues from Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Greece and Poland. EU Athletes represents a number of volleyball players unions and associations and is favorable of having a constructive relationship with the employers organizations and working on enhancing its representation and involvement in volleyball at the same time. For Paulina Tomczyk: “Social dialogue at the European level would surely be beneficial to the sport of volleyball in Europe and the players that EU Athletes represents. It offers a possibility to shape common standards and address problems related to working conditions in a participative way, where interests of stakeholders can be properly represented”.
During the meeting, VLA and EU Athletes agreed to work together to set a framework for collaboration. Official agreement will be defined and concluded after the formal approval from both organizations. Five precise topics have been already brought up, such as contracts, non-EU players, transfers rules, regulations for players’ managers, calendars focusing on proper rest periods and health, participation of the athletes in the national teams in regards to their employment.
Jul 23, 2018
The newest version of the Code of Conduct for Athletes was developed and published as a part of Erasmus+ funded PROtect Integrity Plus project, in cooperation with project partners as well as the private betting operators represented by ESSA, EGBA and RGA.
The Code of Conduct focuses on 5 key messages, in order to make sure that all the athletes are properly educated about the sport betting integrity and understand the risks of match-fixing. These athlete-friendly materials help player association with implementation of the project at the national level while they introduce players to the Red Button reporting app.
Code of Conduct and other materials in English, French, Spanish, Danish, Greek and Italian can be found here.
Jul 20, 2018
PROtect Integrity Plus Erasmus+ project coordinated by EU Athletes aims to support the efforts to fight match-fixing by introducing the Red Button reporting App to more than 3 000 athletes in 5 sports in 7 European countries. The App was initially developed by the Finish Football Players Association (JPY) and FIFPro, who are involved in the project. The new version of the App, adapted for the project partners, have just been rolled out in June 2018. Upcoming months will be busy for the project partners, 8 player associations who will now implement the project within their membership during the team visits. The App will be introduced to players during the education sessions on sport betting integrity and match-fixing, while the system and its functionning will be explained to them. The education is supported and further disseminated by the recently updated posters and leaflets in different language versions, as well as the social media campaign.
