Background & highlights
When the campaign FairPlay. Different Colours. One Game was founded in 1997 at the Vienna Institute for International Dialogue and Cooperation (vidc) within the European Year Against Racism we and players like Thierry Henry represented only a minority. Discrimination in football would be a problem that has nothing to do with football and is brought into by the society - this was the general analysis. Times had changed, in Austria as in many other European countries racism in football is not anymore treated as a trivial offence.
That is also a merit of our work that has a European dimension since 1999: in Wien the European network FARE – Football Against Racism in Europe was founded and FairPlay-vidc acts since then as the coordination office of FARE. The aim of the network is to fight xenophobia and the exclusion of minorites in European football and to initiate pro-active measures. Highlights of the international campaigns are the yearly Europeanwide week of action against discrimination in football in October and the Mondiali Antirazzisti each July in Italy.
Highlights in the campaign history
1997 Establishment of FairPlay. Different Colours. One Game. at the Vienna Institute for International Dialogue and Cooperation (vidc).
1999 Launch of FARE – Football Against Racism in Europe
2000 Official presentation by FARE at the European Parliament in Brussels. FairPlay organises first ever anti-racism stadium activities in the Austrian Bundesliga (Austria Vienna and Rapid Vienna) and the first division (Austria Lustenau).
2001 First FARE week of action against racism and discrimination in football. Another eight have since been staged. UEFA Charity Award for FARE and start of the cooperation between FARE and UEFA.
2002 Inaugural FARE conference in Sheffield (GB). Subsequent conferences at Schalke 04 (D) in 2004 and Inter Bratislava (SK) in 2005. MTV's Free Your Mind Award goes to FARE.
2003 Inaugural UEFA/FARE Unite Against Racism conference in London. European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) gives Jean Kahn Award to FARE.
2004 'FairPlay goes Education' schools competition in the European Year of Education through Sport. Anti-racism activities and fans embassies at the European Championship in Portugal. The Austrian Bundesliga takes part in the FARE week of action for the first time, the beginning of an intensive partnership. FairPlay receives the Fair Play Award from the European Fair Play Movement.
2005 Tackling Racism in European Football hearing at the European parliament; 423 MEPs eventually sign a resolution against racism in football. To mark the UN's International Year of Sport and Physical Education in 2005 and in implementation of the UN's millennium development goals, FC Wacker Tirol joins with fans to become the first Austrian club to organise a 'Kick Poverty Out' event at its Innsbruck stadium. Wacker supporters go on to establish cooperation projects with Burkina Faso and Ghana.
2006 Second UEFA/FARE conference in Barcelona. Anti-racism project at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. FairPlay stages first event with the Austrian Football Association (ÖFB) at the international between Austria and Trinidad & Tobago. The partnership with the ÖFB continues with three more joint events at internationals by 2008. Inaugural FairPlay Sport & Development meeting at the House of Sport in Vienna.
2007 Second 'FairPlay goes Education' competition as a contribution to the UEFA European Under-19 Championship in Austria. Launch of the EUROSCHOOLS 2008 project as a contribution to UEFA EURO 2008TM in Austria and Switzerland. Ahead of EURO 2008 FairPlay starts work on establishing anti-racism and fan-hosting projects.
2008 At UEFA EURO 2008TM, which takes place in Austria and Switzerland in June, FairPlay oversees campaign programmes in three different areas: the coordination and running of fans embassies as part of the official supporter and visitor hosting activities; the organisation of anti-discrimination measures throughout the tournament; and the EUROSCHOOLS 2008 project organised in Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria.