Support for grassroots initiatives + amateur associations

Since the founding of the fairplay initiative in 1997, some important progress has been made in combating racism and discrimination in football, but discriminatory acts and behaviour have still not disappeared from stadiums. We still regularly witness black and other minority players being openly insulted. This happens both at the professional football level and at smaller clubs. Furthermore, migrants and ethnic minorities still feel excluded from existing football structures. Homophobia, i.e. anti-gay and lesbian chants, statements, representations and behaviour, is also common in football, as is the exclusion or undervaluing of women and girls - as fans as well as players. However, there are also many football enthusiasts who want to take action against these abuses and set an example. We want to support these people!

For this reason, fairplay and tipp3 decided in 2009 to set up a project pool to enable committed people and groups to become active against racism, discrimination, homophobia and sexism and to support those affected in football. In order to facilitate the organisation of anti-discriminatory events and activities inside and outside stadiums, financial support can be applied for from fairplay. After the application for support has been processed, submitted projects can be supported with up to 400 euros.

As the project pool facilitated by tipp3 can only support activities in the adult sector for legal reasons, we try to support requests for support in the children and youth sector through other means.

fairplay is also happy to provide support in the planning of projects and events, in public relations (e.g. Facebook, Instagram) and is also happy to provide information material. But even if no financial help is needed, we look forward to hearing about your ideas, initiatives and activities and reporting on them on our homepage or social media.
In addition to projects against anti-discrimination, we have had international projects on homophobia in sport in the past years. This year, we also want to increasingly include the topic of anti-Semitism.

For some years now, the fairplay initiative has been working increasingly in the area of sport & inclusion in order to be able to support committed initiatives and clubs that have started projects and activities for and with refugees in the area of sport. In the fairplay project pool, we also focus on activities that deal with the refugee issue.

Focus 2022: 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and human rights in football

Another thematic area is "Sport & Development & Human Rights". This topic has been discussed more widely in public and in the media in the course of awarding major sporting events to countries such as Brazil, Russia, Qatar and China. With regard to the topics of "development & human rights", we have also been focusing for some time on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the adoption of which explicitly refers to the role of sport for social progress in the 2030 Agenda Declaration.
As we have the focus on "Sport & Human Rights" this year due to the Olympic Games in Beijing as well as the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, we would like to support projects that refer to "Human Rights" in particular this year. A central concern of the fairplay initiative is to bring the 17 Sustainable Development Goals to the sports fields of this country and to make them popular there.  

Both major sporting events cast large shadows in the run-up, especially from a human rights perspective. In Qatar, for example, there are serious violations of labour rights, but also of women's and children's rights. The Olympic Games and the Men's World Cup offer enormous potential and a not-to-be-missed momentum to advocate for global justice, equality and respect for human rights in the wake of the event.

Examples of SDGs that are relevant from a sporting perspective are: 
- SDG 1 (no poverty)
- SDG 3 (health)
- SDG 5 (gender equality)
- SDG 10 (less inequality)
- SDG 12 (responsible consumption)
- SDG 13 (climate action)
- SDG 16 (peace and justice) 
- SDG 17 (partnerships to achieve the goals)

When applying, the submitted project must be assigned to at least one of the themes.

Criteria

Of course, we hope to be able to support all submitted projects. To make it easier for you in planning your actions and for us in selecting applications, we have introduced the following criteria:

• The action is related to at least one of the thematic areas.
• Your project is based on the idea of partnership and the involvement of grassroots organisations (fan groups, NGOs, amateur clubs, etc.).
• Your target group is adults over 18! (only if supported by the tipp3 project pool)
• The activities take place in Austria.