Erasmus Project “Keep Football Clean” can call it a Wrap

After two years of work and effort iNADO and its partners are pleased to announce that ERASMUS-Project “Anti-Doping in Football” has come to a successful end. Several prevention materials from the project are now free to use for the entire anti-doping community.

Under the scientific lead of Prof. Vassilis Barkoukis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the project partners of EuropeActive, iNADO and the National Football Associations of Norway, Bulgaria and Lithuania addressed the challenge of doping prevention in amateur football.

In the case of football, doping controls and anti-doping education provided by NADOs and state authorities mostly refer to elite level athletes. However, football associations include large numbers of athletes and coaches at the grassroots level that was identified as a group who would benefit from specific anti-doping education. Thus, the proposed project is the first of its kind, in terms of providing a sport-specific educational material that will be delivered to grassroots level footballers.

Valued-Based Education Materials

After the partners had evaluated the situation in European grassroot football clubs and agreed on a course of action, the creation of values-based education videos began. The result is a collection of 10 education videos relating to various sport related topics in which the protagonists are educated in relevant topics including the health side effects of taking performance enhancing substances or how they can deal with pressure.

Guide for Ambassadors

From the beginning, the partners agreed that creating and publishing education videos alone is not enough. The athletes needed to exchange and discuss the content of the video, therefore the project partners recruited anti-doping coaches. As project ambassadors they are responsible for the dissemination of the educational materials. Moreover, they will represent the reference point for National Anti-Doping Organisations (NADOs) and football associations. The ambassadors will continue this role following the project to keep raising awareness about doping.

Code of Conduct

The Code of Conduct represents a new call for accountability for the amateur grassroots football sector on doping. It is voluntary, but aims to promote a standardised approach across Europe that could be used by the football clubs, coaches and players. Find out more about the Code.
Please visit the homepage of Keep Football Clean to learn more about the project.