FSE believes that football fans are entitled to watch the game in a safe, secure, and welcoming environment, whatever their background. We also believe that football can serve as a platform to challenge prejudice and bring people and communities together.
These beliefs inform and arise from one of our core principles, which is to oppose any form of discrimination based on ethnic origin, ability, religion and belief, gender, sexual orientation, and age.
To better coordinate our work and the work of our members on this front, we formed a dedicated Anti-Discrimination Division in 2013, whose director sits on the FSE Board. The Anti-Discrimination Division has overseen a number of important projects since then, tackling LGBT-phobia, sexism, and racism.
Fan.Tastic Females
Fan.Tastic Females was launched in 2017 with a simple goal: to share the history and experiences of female fans through interviews and an interactive exhibition. The exhibition, which profiles 90 female fans from 21 countries, has been on tour since 2018, visiting clubs and venues across Europe, from Hamburg in Germany to Lisbon in Portugal. Local fans’ groups host the exhibition with help from the Fan.Tastic Females team, putting on additional events, panel discussions, and lectures. At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, a digital version was made available online.
Find out more on the Fan.Tastic Females website.
F+ Collective
In 2020, building on the success of the Fan.Tastic Females exhibition FSE members launched the F+ Collective. The F+ Collective is an informal network that aims to sustainably mobilise female fan activists from within FSE’s membership and beyond, focusing more strongly on representation and participation in the process. In 2021, the collective hosted a networking event, as well as webinars on women in sport journalism and the issue of sexual assault in football. The F+ Collective is committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion and is open to non-binary and transgender people.
OUT! – Fighting Homophobia and Empowering LGBT+ Stakeholders in Football
Co-funded by UEFA and the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, OUT! brought together individuals and organisations from across the continent to work on the fight against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and the empowerment of LGBT+ stakeholders in football. FSE acted as the project coordinator alongside three main partners (Pride in Football, Fuβballfans gegen Homophobie, and the Royal Belgian Football Association) and four advisory board members. OUT! involved three transnational network meetings in London, Dortmund, and a virtual version of Brussels. The project’s key findings, observations, and recommendations were published as a handbook in December 2020.
Second Fan Shirt
In 2014, as war forced millions of people from their homes and into Europe, FSE members decided they wanted to do something to help. As a result, the Second Fan Shirt initiative was born: a grassroots effort to collect, then sell football merchandise (replica shirts, scarves, etc.), and donate the proceeds to refugee aid projects across the continent. FSE and its members hosted several action days to raise awareness of the plight of refugees and to encourage people to donate. More than 75 fans’ groups from 10 countries backed and raised funds for Second Fan Shirt.