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Football Against Racism in Europe


In 1999 supporter groups and campaigns came together to found the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) network.

Along with Kick It Out (KIO, England), Fairplay (Austria), Progetto Ultra and Unione Italiana Sport per Tutti (Italy), Football Unites, Racism Divides (FURD, England), Never Again (Poland), Ludia Proti Rasizmu (Slovakia), the European Gay & Lesbian Sport Association (EGLSF), Dem Ball is' egal, wer ihn tritt (Gelsenkirchen) and the project group Flutlicht (Berlin), FARE organises annual weeks of action against discrimination in football.

The network's strengths are its various ways of working, ranging from anti-racist documentation to educational tools. While Progetto Ultra, for example, organises the annual Antirazzisti Mondiali, or Anti-Racist World Cup, Kick It Out coordinates a nationwide campaign on behalf of the English Football Association. Between 2001 and 2005 the Bündnis Aktiver Fussballfans (BAFF) toured Germany with Tatort Stadion, an exhibition on racism in football, and thus exerted a long-term influence on the media and institutional perception of racism in the country. The Ballarbeit exhibition by Flutlicht is also a part of the FARE campaign. The FARE action week against discrimination takes place every year in October. In 2005 it involved more than 1,000 activities in 35 countries. Any interested migrant group or supporters club can get involved and has the chance of receiving financial support. In 2001 FARE was awarded the UEFA Charity Cheque. This was followed by MTV's Free your Mind award.

FARE has been a regular UEFA partner ever since. In 2003 and 2006 it helped to organise UEFA's United Against Racism conferences, for example. It has launched a pan-European ten-point plan against racism and appraised projects submitted by individual UEFA members. Having implemented an anti-racist program at EURO 2004 in Portugal, FARE followed suit at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. In future FARE intends to draw attention to the difficulties faced by migrants in football, in particular, and to support projects relating to this issue. The fight against homophobia is being stabilised. In eastern Europe, in particular, projects against neo-Nazism and anti-Semitism are to be created and consolidated.