As 2024 draws to a close, it’s an ideal time to reflect on the impact FSE and its members have made together this year and to set our sights on what lies ahead in 2025.
To begin, we must confront a significant low point for global football: FIFA’s decision to award the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia. Along with 20 organisations globally, we have condemned this decision which has shown FIFA’s true colours; carelessness, irresponsibility, and a willingness to cater to those with the deepest pockets.
In response, this group has collectively committed to highlight the violations and abuses this World Cup will cause, and press for the fundamental changes needed to protect lives and expand freedoms. We’re appalled by the world of football’s endorsement of this decision. FIFA, like any other football governing body, has human rights obligations and responsibilities, and we will seek to hold them accountable.
UEFA EURO 2024
Closer to home, UEFA EURO 2024 was a significant focus for the FSE Office this year. Thanks to the Fans’ Embassies and FSE match observations, the tournament’s Rapid Response Mechanism that was delivered with the support of our SAFER project, and UEFA’s Human Rights commitments which FSE contributed to, UEFA EURO 2024 set new standards for dialogue with supporters. UEFA EURO 2024 also coincided with the finale of FSE’s Fan.Tastic Females Exhibition, which ended at a special event in Berlin two days before the final.
Fan Work
In July, we shared our new women’s football policy which sets out how FSE and other football stakeholders can support the development of an authentic, fan-led supporter culture that reflects the uniqueness of the women’s game.
Throughout 2024, FSE maintained the development of the Supporter Liaison Officer (SLO) role and connecting SLOs together. Key highlights included an SLO Network Meeting in Poznań in June, a workshop in Nyon for SLOs from UEFA Club Competition teams (in partnership with UEFA and the ECA), and the delivery of the SLO Education Programme with UEFA Academy in five countries: Czechia, Italy, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, and Switzerland.
During the summer, our Governance & Representation survey that covered 34 UEFA nations so far revealed that supporters continue to drive governance work in football. Almost 70% of respondents to the survey indicated that supporters organisations were the key players in gaining help or advice on ownership of clubs and involvement in fan democracy.
Our EU-funded projects made significant strides. The SAFER project is implementing activities for tackling gender-based violence in stadiums at its pilot site football clubs, having also been active at EURO2024. Meanwhile, the Future of Football (FoF) project is developing its toolkit to increase youth participation in democratic structures in football. Our other live project, TPDS (Towards the Professional Development of SLOs), is progressing with defining occupational standards and designing educational courses for SLOs. We were delighted to hear that our application for a new Erasmus+ funded project, Liaison-based Integrated Approach to Improving Supporter Engagement II (LIAISE II), has been approved with work getting started next month.
We continued our collaboration with partners in the Sport & Rights Alliance and the Centre for Sport & Human Rights to ensure that human rights are prioritised in decisions made by sporting governing bodies.
In terms of UEFA Club Competitions, we persisted in our efforts for better conditions for away fans throughout 2024. Our work led UEFA to amend its price cap on away tickets, reducing maximum prices for UEFA Champions League matches by nearly 30% to €50 over two seasons. Caps for UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League tickets will also drop to €35 and €20 respectively, with reductions of 20% or more.
We also saw some progress on safe standing this year, as UEFA approved expanding its Standing Facilities Observer Programme to five more countries, doubling its reach to ten – a development welcomed by FSE. We also continued our Away Fan Survey for supporters following their clubs away in European competitions into the 2024/25 season, including the UEFA Women’s Champions League for the first time.
Finally, seven fan representatives from FSE’s National Supporters Organisations took part in the first meeting of UEFA’s Fan Advisory Forum in November, before staff and board members attended the UEFA Convention on the Future of European Football in Brussels earlier this month. We would like to thank Paul Corkrey (Cymru), Ardita Pemaj (Albania), Sarah Agerklint (Denmark), Miguel Bondoso (Portugal), Danique Eijkenboom (Nederlands), Katrina Law (England), and Gregor Weinrich (Germany) for their time and input recently.
Looking Ahead To 2025
Reflecting on 2024, it is clear to see that along with our members, we are continually reinforcing our position as a key stakeholder in European football by leveraging the responsibility, influence, and agency step by step for the benefit of fans.
Next year provides plenty to look forward to, with EFFC 2025 heading to Malmö, the development of a structured Disability & Inclusion Fan Network for fan groups across Europe, and the UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 in Switzerland. For all our progress, however, it’s also clearer than ever that if fans want to protect our game from grassroots to elite level in the long term, we need to organise and make our voice even stronger now than ever before. In 2025, we will continue to work tirelessly on collectively making an impact on behalf of all supporters.
It is customary for many to adopt a New Year’s resolution at the start of a new year. We ask you to consider encouraging others to join FSE for free as their resolution and make our voice even stronger.
Whatever 2025 brings, we will be prepared for it.
The FSE Office will be closed from 20th December 2024 until it reopens on 6th January 2025.