Festive greetings from all of us at CAFE!
We wish all of our supporters the very best for the festive season, and a happy and prosperous new year!
2014 - A CAFE year in review
2014 has been a year to remember at CAFE.
The year got off to a busy start with our second Week of Action – Total Football Total Access taking place in Poland and Ukraine in the spring as a part of our ongoing UEFA EURO 2012 legacy project. The CAFE week of action has been highly successful in the region with many local clubs now taking part. We also worked with UEFA and SL Benfica to ensure improvements to the disabled fans seating areas for the UEFA Champions League Final in May. These improvements have left a lasting legacy and with the support of our NGO partner, INR, 2015 should see further legacy developments for local disabled fans across Portugal. In early June, we moved to our new head offices in London and CAFE is now based just a kick of a football away from the iconic Wembley Stadium, a fitting location for an organisation working at the heart of European football. We were delighted to invite UK Minister for Sport & Equality, Helen Grant MP, to officially open our offices in November.
2014 saw CAFE’s works also extend beyond Europe for the first time and we were pleased to work in collaboration with FIFA to deliver a CSR project at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Working with our local implementing partner Urece, we introduced a dedicated audio-descriptive commentary for partially sighted and blind fans to Brazilian football for the first time. In the autumn, we were proud to see our Managing Director, Joyce Cook graduate from the UEFA Women in Football Leadership programme. And the year ends on a high note with several great new people joining the CAFE team, including our new Board member, David Davies OBE and Joanna Deagle, Project and Research Manager. Elena Karpukhina has also recently moved to the UK office as the new European Head of Development.
We close the year with plans for our second CAFE Conference in autumn 2015 now starting to get underway, and with our attention turning towards France ahead of UEFA EURO 2016.
You can read the full summary of CAFE’s works and achievements over the last year on our website. 2015 is shaping up to be another exciting year and we look forward to working with all our partners and stakeholders as we strive together for Total Football Total Access.
National disabled supporters association established in Netherlands
CAFE is delighted to report the creation of MIVA United - a national disabled supporters association representing all disabled fans across the Netherlands.
CAFE hosted the inaugural meeting of the group in December 2013 in Amsterdam, alongside the Chairs of both DSA's (Johan ten Hoove from FC Groningen and Dick Cochius from Vitesse Arnhem) as well as other representatives from the groups. CAFE shared examples of existing national DSA's and provided guidance on how a sustainable and successful group could be set up in the Netherlands.
CAFE Managing Director, Joyce Cook OBE, said, "This announcement is a wonderful way to end the year and we send our congratulations to everyone who has made this possible. CAFE will continue to offer our support and friendship to MIVA United as they continue to grow. We strongly believe in empowering local disabled fans as self-advocates working alongside clubs and football associations. The creation of MIVA United will undoubtably benefit many disabled football fans across the Netherlands and is a fitting way to help celebrate the 125 year anniversary of the KNVB".
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Ekstraklasa publish video to celebrate inclusion at Polish stadiums
To celebrate the International Day of Disabled People on 3rd December 2014, Poland’s top football division Ekstraklasa released a video to show how the matchday experience of disabled fans across the country has greatly improved as a legacy of UEFA EURO 2012.
Ekstraklasa recently signed a memorandum of cooperation with CAFE, and the two organisations have worked closely together over a number of years on improving access to live football matches.
CAFE’s works in Poland began in 2008, when CAFE first met with UEFA EURO 2012 architects in Warsaw. CAFE delivered the UEFA Respect Inclusion – Football with no Limits project around UEFA EURO 2012. The project was hugely popular and led to a UEFA funded 3 year legacy project which has resulted in many more disabled fans being able to attend live matches, with improvements to accessible seating and amenities and the introduction of accessible services. facilities and additional accessible services made available.
Visit the CAFE website to read more and to view the video (in Polish with English subtitles).
Spreading the message of 'Total Football, Total Access' across Europe
CAFE Managing Director, Joyce Cook OBE, has represented the charity at two high-profile European events this month.
Last week, Joyce presented at the International Stadium and Venue Expo in Geneva. Joyce's presentation was entitled 'Providing Accessibility and Experiences for All' and she introduced the gathered audience to CAFE’s work and the long-term benefits of inclusive stadium design.
The Expo was a part of the wider Geneva International Sports Convention, with 18 conferences taking place across two days bringing some of sport’s most influential people and organisations together.
Joyce then moved on to Amsterdam, to attend the 'Breaking the Glass Ceiling' seminar. This event was organised by Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB), UEFA and FARE to focus on institutional discrimination in football. The seminar also served as the launch of new UEFA-funded research on the issue, which has found that less than 4% of European football leaders are women, only 12% of women are employed as senior administrators and only 3.4% of elite level coaches at clubs are from an ethnic minority background.
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CAFE advisory group welcomes new members
We are delighted to announce that three new members have agreed to join the CAFE advisory group.
The advisory group consists of stakeholders from across many aspects of our work, bringing together experts in a number of fields. The advisory group draws on the experiences of different people across Europe to help support our works.
Jose Manuel Braga Madeira Serôdio and Marina Cardoso Van Zeller are the President and Vice-President of INR - a disability NGO that CAFE has been working with in Portugal. They have been joined on the advisory group by fellow new member Amy Wilson - a disabled football fan from the UK with many experiences of visiting stadiums both at home and across Europe.
We welcome Jose, Marina and Amy to the CAFE advisory group. To find out more about them and the rest of the group, visit the CAFE advisory group webpage.
Mauana Simas named as Inspirational Woman of 2014
Everyone at CAFE would like to send many congratulations to Mauana Simas, who has been named as one of ThinkOlga.com’s Inspirational Women of 2014.
ThinkOlga is a Brazilian think-tank created to raise the discussion of femininity in today’s world, and celebrates many of the women helping to shape society both in Brazil and beyond. Almost 150 women have been recognised by ThinkOlga, across a number of different platforms. Mauana has been praised under the Communications and Media category.
Mauana played a key role in delivering CAFE’s audio-descriptive commentary project, a CSR 2014 FIFA World Cup project in Brazil. She was appointed as Project Coordinator by our Brazilian partner Urece. Audio-descriptive commentary was provided at all matches played in Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo – a total of 26 matches including the Final. This allowed for more than 400 partially sighted and blind football fans to attend matches in an inclusive and accessible environment. Mauana’s hard work and dedication throughout made her one of the main reasons why the project was so successful.
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News in brief
World Heart Federation launches Eat For Goals! app in partnership with UEFA
Marek Plura: "EU must stop discrimination against disabled persons"
Tattoo by foot - Youtube video
UK House of Lords Debate on Sport Governance
Have Your Say – disabled fans comments
The Have Your Say section of the CAFE website is your opportunity to share your matchday experiences with us. Tell us what you found good, not good, and what you felt could have been improved. Fans comments are taken seriously, and can help to make a real positive change for other disabled fans visiting the stadium in the future.
Leaving your fans comments is easy to do. Simply go to www.cafefootball.eu and using the dropdown menus select the stadium that you have recently visited. Each stadium has its own fans comments section where you can share your experiences in any language.
Most recent fans comments include Galatasaray, Arsenal, Manchester City and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
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