European Healthy Stadia Programme

Sports Stadia and Community Health

Following the success of the work around Healthy Stadia undertaken by Heart of Mersey in North West England, a successful proposal for a ‘Sports Stadia and Community Health’ project was made to the European Commission in the framework of its Public Health Programme (DG SANCO).

This project worked with an initial group of partner agencies in Finland, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Ireland, Poland, Spain and the UK, and was tasked with piloting the Healthy Stadia concept with stadia in a cross-section of European countries and developing suitable guidance documentation to further the future roll out healthy promotion activities.

Outcomes

One of the key activities for the European programme was benchmarking of current practices across Europe. Following an initial literature review, in March 2008 a questionnaire was disseminated by European project partners enquiring about the stadium’s age, ownership, capacity and range of ‘healthy’ initiatives. The results of this survey were published in Health Promotion International.

Building on this initial evidence base a Healthy Stadia ‘Toolkit’ was developed, providing users with a walk-through of how to adopt the Healthy Stadia concept, identify and address priority areas and work with local partners. This toolkit was supported by a host of case studies drawn together from stadia participating in the programme.

Support for Stadia

Many of the initial ideas generated from the original research programme have been developed further by Healthy Stadia. This includes our range of support for stadium operators. Click the images below to access support around no smoking policies, promoting walking and cycling and offering fresh and healthy food at stadia.

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Tobacco Free Stadia Guidance

Learn about how your stadia can adopt No Smoking policies to protect fans from second-hand smoke

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Active Travel Guidance

Find out how you can support walking and cycling to your stadia on a matchday

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Healthier Catering

Food preferences are changing - find out how your stadium can adapt

Dissemination

In order to disseminate much of the learning and results from this programme of work, our first European conference was held in Liverpool (UK) in September 2009, where the European Healthy Stadia Network was officially launched.

In addition to keynote speeches from UEFA, the European Commission and major sports stadia such as Anfield (Liverpool FC) and the Amsterdam Arena, the findings from the audit of current practice, the piloting of the toolkit and case studies generated through the European programme were disseminated to over 250 delegates.

Downloads

European Audit of Current Practice

Healthy Stadia Evaluation Report

Toolkit of Best Practices

Sports Stadia and Community Health Poster

Healthy Stadia Conference: 2009

For more information about the Healthy Stadia Conference: 2009 please click the button opposite to access the conference hub.

About Us

Find out more about Healthy Stadia and the Healthy Stadia concept

Stadia Guidance

Support for stadia to introduce health-promoting policies

Community

Find out more about our range of community health programmes

Campaigns

Learn more about how we advocate for change through sport

Research Projects

Discover how we support researchers and deliver projects

UEFA

Find out how we support Europe’s governing body of football