Published
2024-11-28
Union Cup nominated as ‘UEFA Best Grassroots initiative by a professional club’
Big news: Union Inspires' Union Cup has been nominated for a prestigious award from European Football Association UEFA. The ‘Best Grassroots initiative by a professional club’ award annually rewards a local social project that unites people around football. The winner will be announced in spring 2025.
Since 2020, Union Inspires, the social and ecological arm of Union Saint-Gilloise, has been inviting local schools in Forest and Saint-Gilles to take part in its project: the Union Cup. These extracurricular football matches are based on four pillars: a non-competitive framework, diversity, inclusion and togetherness, both on and off the pitch.
This no-win tournament is aimed at children aged between 10 and 13 who enjoy playing football (but do not necessarily play at a club) or who want to discover the sport.
The teams, which are mixed, are supervised by community sports coaches who focus on developing personality, talent and social skills.
We have also developed two methods to support this non-competitive sports environment.
- First, we have replaced yellow and red cards with green cards to reward positive behaviour (on and off the pitch).
- Second, coaches hold a clear briefing before the match to remind players of the essential values of the Union Cup. Then, there is a debriefing at the end of the activity on the pre-cited values and their implementation in practice, during the matches.
The Union Cup is growing every year and this season 14 schools are participating, which includes both Dutch-speaking and French-speaking schools.
The Union Inspires project has been nominated for the UEFA award Best Grassroots initiative by a professional club. The award ceremony will take place in spring 2025. It is already a reward for Union Inspires' important and valued work.