Mar 11, 2026
A new European initiative is set to strengthen support for the mental health of professional and elite athletes across the continent. Tackle Your Feelings Europe (TYFE) is a collaborative project co-funded by the European Union aims to put athlete wellbeing at the heart of sport.
TYFE builds on the success of the Tackle Your Feelings campaign established in 2016 by Rugby Players Ireland. Expanding this proactive approach to a broader European sporting community, the TYFE project will work to reduce stigma and strengthen the systems that support athletes.
See our website here.
From performance expectations and media scrutiny, to non-selection and injuries, athletes face unique pressures. However, mental health support in sport has often fallen behind physical performance resources. TYFE aims to change that by encouraging open conversations, improving access to mental health resources, and equipping athlete organisations with the knowledge and tools needed to support wellbeing effectively.
“From performance expectations to public scrutiny, athletes face unique pressures that can have a significant impact on their mental health,” said Paulina Tomczyk, General Secretary of the European Athletes and Players Association, who will lead the project.
“Through TYFE, we’re uniting athletes, their representative bodies, and researchers across European borders to ensure their mental wellbeing is no longer overlooked. Our goal is to make mental health a natural part of every athlete’s training, so they receive the same level of support for their minds as they do for their bodies, and can truly thrive both on and off the field.”
The project aligns with the European Union’s sport priority of encouraging healthy lifestyles for all and the horizontal priority of digital transformation. Through research, education, and innovative digital tools, TYFE will work to improve mental health literacy, resilience, and support capacity across European sport.
The project brings together nine athlete associations representing more than 11,000 professional and elite athletes across multiple sporting disciplines.
Project Coordinator: European Athletes & Players Assocation (EAPA)
Asociación de Mujeres de Balonmano (AMBM)
Asociación de Jugadores de Fútbol Sala (AJFS)
Associazione Italiana Pallavolisti (AIP)
Basketball Players Union (BPU)
Gaelic Players Association (GPA)
Giocatori Italiani Basket Associati (GIBA)
Rugby Players Ireland (RPI)
Sindikat Športnikov Slovenije (SŠS)
Suomen Urheilijat (SU)
Associated Partner: FIFPRO
Each organisation will contribute to comprehensive research being conducted by Dr Emma Burrows, in partnership with Professor Vincent Gouttebarge, Chief Medical Officer at FIFPRO.
Burrows insists that “robust research is essential if we are serious about protecting athlete wellbeing. Through TYFE, we are building a strong evidence base that will help sports organisations understand the real challenges athletes face and respond with meaningful, practical support.”
The project’s overarching objective is to develop and implement strategies that protect and promote the mental health and wellbeing of professional and elite athletes. TYFE will contribute to new research on athlete mental health, improve the knowledge and skills of athlete associations, enhance the quality and availability of support services, and raise public awareness about mental health in sport.
A dedicated TYFE website has also launched. It will provided research insights, educational materials, and practical mental health resources for athletes and sports organisations across Europe over the course of the project.
Mar 10, 2025
Earlier this year we were delighted to kick off our latest ERASMUS+ project: Athletes for Good governance and Rights in EuropE (AGREE). Coordinated by EAPA, our first meeting was held in Madrid earlier this year.
The AGREE project promotes the integrity and values in sport, focusing on improving good governance in sport. The aim of the project is to promote the sport governance by enhancing the relevant knowledge and developing competences related to collective bargaining.
The topic of collective bargaining was identified as one of the key areas where more work was needed during EAPA’s General Assembly 2023. Furthermore, the importance was earlier highlighted in the EU Athletes Common Position Paper (2022).
The project will start with research into collective bargaining in sport, as well as exploring the connections between Collective Bargaining Agreements, Good Governance and Athlete Rights. Based on this research, the CBA Report and the Final Report shall be published.
Thereafter 16 job shadowing visits will be organised. Through these visits, partners will be able to develop their knowledge and competencies related to collective bargaining. Furthermore, seven national events involving key stakeholders shall be organised.
Based on the results obtained from the research and the input and experiences from the visits and events, the project will place a focus on preparing European minimum standards and practical guidelines. This will lead to the publication of the following papers: the Minimum Standard European Contract, the Minimum Standard European CBA and the Practical Guide on Collective Bargaining Agreements.
Lastly, the project shall ensure that the activities and all the obtained results are widely shared via specific campaigns and social media.
The project consortium is composed of 10 members, EAPA, the Edge Hill University as the research institution, and eight player associations:
ABP – Spanish Basketball Players Association
AJFSF – Spanish Women’s Futsal Players Association
HSF – Danish Handball Players Association
GIBA – Italian Basketball Players Association
GPA – Gaelic Player Association
JPY – The Football Players Association of Finland
NL Sporter – Dutch Athletes Association
Provale – French Rugby Player Association
For further information regarding the project, please contact: info@euathletes.org
Apr 12, 2023
On the 31st of March, EU Athletes attended the 3rd International Sport4Impact Conference in Milan, Italy. The event gathered over 60 people to discuss the role of finance and private sectors to design and scale up policies and programs for driving social change through sport. The day before, on the 30th of March, EU Athletes also participated in a smaller pre-event to exchange ideas on creating regulations for prevention and countering crimes in sport in strict coordination with the law enforcement agencies.
During the conference, representatives from sport organisations, public bodies, and practitioners explored opportunities to better connect and cooperate with financial and private operators. The event was organised by IIISSS in cooperation with other partners and with the support of UNESCO. Sport4Impact Conference offered a setting for showcasing current cases and tools as well as potential solutions developed by financial and private sectors. Thanks to the organisers Paolo Bertaccini and Sabrina Vettorato for inviting EU Athletes to the conference.
On behalf of its members, EU Athletes advocated for recognition of the role and importance that athlete and player associations have in the prevention of competition manipulation, corruption and other types of wrongdoings in sport.
Player associations support athletes when it comes to their personal development, education, mental health and wellbeing. Education is an essential element in the prevention of crimes in sport, and player associations are the pioneers and leaders in developing and delivering education to athletes. Education is delivered to athletes by people who they know and trust, therefore, it has a greater impact on the athletes.
Player associations also work to engage in collective bargaining, ensure better working conditions and for athletes to practise sport and the respect of their rights, which all together positively influences the overall welfare of athletes and, hence, makes them less vulnerable to take part in competition manipulation. The work of player associations may further help to improve sport governance and the accountability of sport organisations towards the athletes.
At the same time, other sport stakeholders should understand, respect and support the essential role of player associations. Crimes in sport continue to expand to new locations and take new forms. To fight these wrongdoings effectively, national, European, and international stakeholders should come together, exchange their knowledge and practices.
In line with that EU Athletes is currently coordinating an Erasmus+ project PROtect Integrity Online co-funded by the European Union. The project brings together 8 player associations representing 5 major sports and the University of Rennes 2 as the research institution. PROtect Integrity Online focuses on researching, developing, implementing and evaluating the best ways to deliver integrity education to players, particularly related to fighting match-fixing and corruption in sport.
Mar 6, 2023
On 15 and 16th of February 2023, the first project meeting of the SOPROS project took place on the campus of the project coordinator – German Sport University in Cologne. It is an Erasmus+ project co-funded by the European Union. The aim of the SOPROS project is to promote integrity and values in sports by assessing, evaluating and implementing athletes’ social protection in Olympic sports.
The SOPROS project is a three-year project ending in December 2025. It is a continuation of the work on the previous Erasmus+ EMPLOYS project on athletes’ social protection that was recently finished in December 2022. The final report from EMPLOYS project ‘Good Governance in the Employment Relations of Athletes in Olympic Sports in Europe: Understanding – Evaluating – Improving’ is published here.
The project consortium involves both academic partners and policy partners, including EU Athletes, which ensures a balanced exchange of knowledge and expertise. Close cooperation of academic and policy partners as well as relevant stakeholders is ensured at every stage of the project. German Sport University Cologne is a coordinator of the project. University of Rijeka (Croatia), Universidade Europeia (Portugal), Edge Hill University (Great Britain), Institute for Sport Governance (Poland) are academic partners. Apart from EU Athletes, European Olympic Academies, and European Association of Sport Employers are policy partners of the project. International Labour Organization is an associated partner of the project.
The SOPROS project intends to collect unique data about athletes’ social protection in Olympic sports by developing practicable Self-Assessment Tools for athletes, sport governing bodies and public authorities. The collected data will be then analysed and presented in an Evaluation report. Afterwards, a process of negotiations in Olympic elite sports will be piloted to understand its potential benefits and challenges. During the project two rounds of National workshops will be hosted in several European countries as well as one EU-Level Multi-Stakeholder Workshop and three public Conferences.
Progress and important updates on Erasmus+ SOPROS project will be shared on the EU Athletes webpage throughout the duration of the project.
Dec 22, 2022
PROLead is a collaborative partnership project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union and coordinated by EU Athletes, with German Sport University Cologne and 8 player
associations from different countries and sports (GPA, RPI, PPF, FNASS, UBE, TCA, AJFS, AJJV) as partners. Focusing on the topic of dual careers of athletes, the aim of the project was to enhance leadership skills of athletes, as well as volunteers and staff of player associations, by designing and implementing leadership courses at the European and national level.
After the Dissemination Conference which was an opportunity to share good practices and results of the three years of cooperation, the project is now coming to the conclusion at the end of the year. Experiences gathered during different stages of the project are presented in the final intellectual output How to Set Up a Leadership Course? Practical Guide for Player Associations. Building on the research phase, the design and implementation of both European and National Leadership Courses, as well as the evaluation and participant’s feedback, the Guide offers player associations or other stakeholders guidance and advice related to leadership education.
How to Set Up a Leadership Course? Practical Guide for Player Associations
For more information contact Paulina Tomczyk, PROLead Project Manager paulinatomczyk@euathletes.org
Dec 19, 2022
ProMobility project, financed by the European Union and focusing on exchanges and mobility between staff of player associations from Europe and South Africa, was implemented by EU Athletes between January 2021 and December 2022. The aim of the project was to support learning between player associations
The project was heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to changes in the work programme, introducing Online Exchanges and limiting the number of job shadowing visits that were implemented. Nevertheless, the project helped to identify, share and expand good practice in supporting elite athletes through their associations. The player associations participating in the project represent more than 10,000 elite athletes. Therefore, the project positively influences these players as it helps to enhance the quality of work and support that the player associations can offer them.
The main topics of the project were:
- Player recruitment and engagement (as members of player associations)
- Player personal development
- Commercial development and marketing
- Communications and media
- Response to the Covid-19 pandemic
These topics have been explored through online and in-person exchanges between the staff of player associations and correspond to the chapters of the Good Practice Booklet. The purpose of the booklet was to gather and share good practices identified. Any athlete association or player union, as well as any other organization whose aim is to support athletes, can benefit from ideas and practical advice that has been gathered during the ProMobility project.
Consult ProMobility Good Practice Booklet
For more information contact Paulina Tomczyk, ProMobility Project Manager paulinatomczyk@euathletes.org
