Dec 14, 2022
This morning, the Dissemination Conference of PROLead project has taken place online, gathering over 170 participants from player associations, sport organisations, dual career providers, universities and other organisations. The meeting was an opportunity to share the experiences and results of the project, good practices and discuss the topic of leadership education and player development.
PROLead is a collaborative partnership project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union and coordinated by European Elite Athletes Association (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.
The conference was kicked off by Tom Parsons, the CEO of Gaelic Players Association who shared his leadership journey in a keynote speech. Presentations of the PROLead project by Paulina Tomczyk, General Secretary of EU Athletes, and the project results: Desktop Research and Literature Review of Leadership Education for Athletes by Sebastian Uhrich from German Sport University Cologne and the European Leadership Course and Good Practice Guide by Eamonn Murphy from Gaelic Players Association followed.
The participants also had an opportunity to hear from two panels. First one, moderated by Karen Thorpe from Gaelic Players Association, focused on the experiences of player associations who designed and delivered National Leadership Courses for their players during the PROLead project. Alessandro Marzoli from Union des Basketteurs Europeens, Roose Hoogeboom from the Cyclists Alliance and Sergio Alonso from Asociacion de Jugadores de Futbol Sala shared insights into their work. In the second panel, two athletes (Lex Albrech and Robert Fultz) and two facilitators (Rossa O’Donnell and Francesca Di Sipio) engaged in a discussion about how to best teach and how to learn leadership, moderated by Pamela Gilpin from Rugby Players Ireland.
The Conference was concluded by Natalia Orive, the Vice President of EU Athletes, who emphasised the work that EU Athletes has been doing to strengthen the leadership within the player association movement, and the importance of helping athletes to realise their potential and strength as leaders.
Paulina Tomczyk, the Project Manager of PROLead, said ‘I am very proud of the work that the project team has completed over the last 3 years. We have managed to bring positive results for the athletes, partner organisations and other EU Athletes members. Today’s conference was also an opportunity to share and exchange with other player associations and various stakeholders, with an ultimate goal to best support athlete development and leadership education.’
Oct 6, 2022
EU Athletes is looking to hire a Project and Policy Officer. The offer can be found here.
Aug 18, 2022
EMPLOYS (‘ERASMUS+ Understanding, Evaluating, and Improving Good Governance’) is a collaborative project which aims to improve good governance in the employment relations of athletes in Olympic sports. It does so by providing, evaluating and sharing evidence based information, practices and recommendations in sport and governance. EMPLOYS runs from January 2020 to December 2022.
As part of the project, a number of transnational project meetings (TPMs) have taken place.
The seventh TPM is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, 19 and 20 September 2022. It will take place in Warsaw, Poland. During the TPM, the project partners will prepare the publication of the Final Report and the Final Event which will take place in Brussels later this Autumn.
More information about EMPLOYS is available here.
Jul 12, 2022
On 7-8 July 2022, the Social Dialogue in Europe for Professional (SDE Pro) Sports project kick-off meeting took place in the offices of COSMOS (Association of Sport Employers in France) in Paris, France. SDE Pro Sports is a 2-year project co-funded by the EU that will run under the Support for Social Dialogue programme. It aims to contribute to the development of social dialogue between employers and employees in professional sport in the EU.
The partners to the project are EU Athletes, the European Association of Sport Employers (EASE) and the German Sport University of Cologne.
At the kick-off meeting, there first was a presentation of the SDE Pro Sports project and its background. The participants also discussed the methodology, advancement and publicization of the upcoming mapping phase of national collective agreements in professional sports in Europe. A number of members of EU Athletes and EASE were invited to share and compare their experiences on social dialogue in their respective countries, as well as reflect on a common ground for social dialogue in Europe. The members invited by EU Athletes were AJFS (Spain), AJFSF (Spain), GIBA (Italy), LI (Iceland), RPI (Ireland), and SSS (Slovenia).
More information about this new project is available here.
Jun 27, 2022
EU Athletes is a partner to ‘Strengthening Athlete Power in Sport’ (SAPIS), a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. SAPIS strives to strengthen athletes’ influence and representation in sport through increasing the democratisation of sports governance and management. This is important considering that athletes are often not allowed to participate effectively in decision-making processes within their own sport.
The project, which runs from 1st of January 2020 until 31st of December 2023, is coordinated by Play the Game. Project partners include both athlete representatives and academic researchers coming from the Netherlands, Finland, Spain, Wales, and Slovenia.
When asked about EU Athletes expectations on SAPIS back in 2020, Paulina Tomczyk, Secretary General of EU Athletes, expressed:
“The importance of athlete representation in sports governance cannot be overstated. By working in partnership with athlete organisations, sports bodies can assure that the rights and interests of key stakeholders are respected so sport is being developed in a way that is beneficial for athletes and all involved. I believe the SAPIS project can help athletes realise the potential of their collective power to stand up for their rights and improve sports governance.”
On 26th of June, the SAPIS steering group met in Odense, Denmark, for a 7th meeting. The steering group meeting was arranged in connection with Play the Game 2022. During the meeting, the steering group looked over the progress of the project and discussed the outputs that are still to be developed. At current, the project partners are writing a report on a survey conducted of representative organisations for athletes. A session about SAPIS will also be held at said Play the Game conference.
More information about SAPIS is available here.
Jun 6, 2022
Today EU Athletes publishes the results of its research on the long-term impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Players and their Player associations in Europe.
This study is the continuation of the EU Athletes survey that was conducted amongst EU Athletes members at the early stage of the pandemic in 2020 (can be found here).
For EU Athletes Vice President, Natalie ORIVE, the results of this second survey shows that even if the pandemic is almost behind, it still has an important overall impact on Athletes in Europe “It was clear in our mind that the effects of the pandemic could only be measured in the long term, that’s why we wanted to have a clear evaluation of the situation two years after the pandemic has started”.
Over the last 2 years the work done by the Player Association for their members was structurally modified. With limited access to the players, no face to face interaction and majority of the work conducted online the consequences could have been dramatic. The results show that only 22% of the association have experienced a loss in their membership while at the same time 74% of them experienced an increase in a demand for services from the period compared to before the pandemic.
“In a really insecure time for players it’s great and encouraging to see players reaching out to their Player Association for help” Natalia Orive, vice-president of EU Athletes.
Structural governance problems, the involvement of the Player Association.
The report further revealed a number of issues of concern that need acknowledgement and drastic countermeasures. These include, among other things, a lack of respect for players’ rights and interests, a deprivation of players’ workers status and proper contracts, and insufficient involvement of player associations in decision-making processes. 48% of the player association reported a “lack of involvement in the decision making process” while leagues and federations were taking measures that would directly affect players (scheduling of the season, pay-cuts, health and safety protocol…).
58% of the members association have noticed a decrease in players salary during the pandemic period. “This situation is really alarming for athletes, especially in less professionalized sports” said Natalia Orive.
Mental health and women sport 2 areas of concern.
“We knew that COVID-19 would affect the mental health of athletes. Now we have the data that corroborate this statement” said Natalia Orive “From one day to the next athletes were going from permanent activity to nothing. It’s pretty much as if all the athletes in Europe retired on the exact same day, with no or little vision of what would come next. 70% of our members have reported a negative impact on their mental health. It’s really alarming and concrete measures should be taken rapidly. Mental health should be properly addressed from now on” she added.
While some player associations reported having witnessed more sponsoring and more media attention being brought to women’s sport, it remains a fact that the area is of low priority as 67% of the respondents received “no targeted support for women”. This is alarming considering that such support is necessary in protecting the significant progress women’s elite sport has seen over the past years.
EU Athletes will continue to work on a post-pandemic evaluation of the individual situation of its members to ensure that the mentioned issues of concern (as well as additional issues listed in the report) are duly addressed both at the European and national level.
You can download the full report here.
For any inquiries please contact EU Athletes : info@euathletes.org
