In response to the devastating terrorist attack in Vienna on November 2, 2020, the Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media, and Sport (BMWKMS – formerly BMKÖS) promoted projects aimed at preventing extremism in sport. The fairplay initiative submitted a project entitled “fairplay prevention – contact point against dehumanizing ideologies” and was awarded the contract to run an Austria-wide contact point in sport from January 2022. The aim of the project was to counteract extremism in the long term and remove the breeding ground for it – through education and awareness-raising, educational programs, and by increasing resilience in sports clubs and among active participants.
Since then, the new department at fairplay has organised numerous events and campaigns, published scientific studies, created educational opportunities for clubs/associations in the form of workshops and training courses, and promoted networking in the areas of organised sports, extracurricular youth work, extremism prevention, and civil society actors.
Preventing extremism in sport: establishing a new area of work
At the very beginning of the project, the focus was particularly on establishing the work. One of the biggest challenges was the lack of data and comparable projects. In addition, fairplay prevention attempted to pool the existing expertise of people and organisations in German-speaking countries and to network them with each other – with a view to developing a holistic prevention strategy for sport. The thematic focus was on the prevention of right-wing extremism and religiously motivated extremism, with a particular emphasis on martial arts and football. The project advisory board, made up of experts from the fields of sports, youth, prevention, research, and documentation, provided fairplay prevention with advice and support.
Through active networking, events, and campaigns, it was possible to develop targeted prevention measures, particularly in the field of martial arts, and to promote an inclusive martial arts culture. The programme was very well received and supported by professional associations and clubs as well as by projects and organisations involved in open youth work. This benefited not only these institutions, but above all numerous young people who are passionate about practicing this emerging sport, as well as those who would like to do so but are unable to due to the prevailing conditions (e.g., hypermasculinity or dehumanizing ideologies).
Positive results
The flagship projects included the publication of the exploratory study “On the Status of Prevention Approaches in Austrian Martial Arts,” together with Vollkontakt from Germany, the organization of the conference “Diversity in Martial Arts” together with the World Jewish Congress, the Austria-wide campaign “Feminist Fighters Week,” and the “Fan Embassy” as part of UEFA EURO 2024 in Germany.
Another highlight was the open-air exhibition about the legendary ÖFB team manager, Holocaust survivor, and initiator of the school league, Leopold Stastny, which attracted over 7,000 visitors in Innsbruck.
Most recently, we presented our monitoring report “Dehumanizing Ideologies in Martial Arts – Toxic Masculinities, Right-wing Extremism, and Networks” (only available in German) at the conference “Taking a Stand in Sport” in Vienna. We look back with particular pleasure on the regular exchanges with sports clubs and associations, gyms, event organisers, and youth social work organisations. In addition, we have succeeded in creating an offering for organised sports that raises awareness of the issue, gives them new options for action, and strengthens their resilience. There have also been successes at the political level: the new National Anti-Semitism Strategy 2.0 includes a chapter on sports for the first time, with reference to best practice examples from fairplay prevention.
Looking to the future
At the end of January 2026, the project was discontinued due to austerity measures and was no longer funded by the BMWKMS. The discontinuation of the project primarily affects those sports stakeholders who have benefited from the expertise, workshops, campaigns, or events of fairplay prevention over the past four years. Together, we are convinced that the prevention of extremism can only continue to work if it is effective in all areas of society – including sport. The joint efforts of recent years – to strengthen sport in its resilience to extremism – are now being halted.
Nevertheless, we will continue to work on this issue and can offer individual educational measures (workshops and training courses) through our service center, as well as maintaining the contact point for combating dehumanizing ideologies. However, the goal must be to ensure that the important prevention work in Austrian sports is once again supported by public funds.
In the hope that the structures established in Austria will be of lasting benefit and that dehumanizing ideologies will not find fertile ground in sport.
Contact:
Michael Schmied
schmied [AT] vidc [DOT] org
Tel: +43 1 713 35 94 - 84
