In one of its final acts, G-14, the soon-to-be wound-up european club football association, has published a report into its community investments. The report, which was audited by UK based charity, Business in the Community, using its Clubs that Count methodology, is probably the first pan-european review of soccer club community investments and policy. There are some clear trends…clubs moving from a local philanthropic approach to a global, CSR based one; increasing links to charities and NGOs in order to find suitable programmes for clubs to engage with social issues and, lastly, an increasing number of environmental schemes and growing environmental awareness.
Glasshouse, which helped G-14 with the project, thinks these trends will accelerate over the next decade driven by pressures from politicians and Civil Society to engage more actively in dealing with social issues (look at the European White Paper on Sport). As well as this external pressure, professional sport, especially football, will seek to build relevance and esteem with their newly expanding fan bases across the globe. To read the BITC / G-14 report, go to G14.com and dig through to News ‘New Report Provides Insight into…‘