EUROPEAN FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS AWARD GOES TO THE ‘NEVER AGAIN’ ASSOCIATION

10 January 2011

The Warsaw-based anti-racist ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has been chosen as the recipient of this year’s European Football Supporters Award.

The annual European Football Supporters Award (EFSA) has been awarded to groups promoting positive attitudes in sports since 2005. The jury is composed of representatives of UEFA, the European Commission, the Council of Europe, the City of Brussels, the European Association of Sports Magazines and the ‘Sport & Citizenship’ association. It is led by Philippe Housiaux, the EFSA’s initiator and spokesman. This year the selection was made from among 14 nominations coming from Belgium, France, Scotland, Germany, Poland, Wales, Turkey, Austria, Israel, Holland, Spain and Switzerland.

‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association According to the official EFSA statement, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has been selected for the award because of its “amazing battle against racism and xenophobia for the past 15 years”.

“We are delighted to see so many years’ hard work has been appreciated” – said Marcin Kornak, the Chairman of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association who initiated its ‘Let’s Kick Racism Out of the Stadiums’ campaign. - “Currently we focus on EURO 2012 preparations. We conduct educational activities, we also document racist incidents in Poland, Ukraine and other countries in the region”.

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an anti-racist educational and monitoring organization established in Poland in 1996. It runs the ‘Let's Kick Racism out of the Stadiums’ campaign and actively participates in the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) network. Since 2009, ‘NEVER AGAIN’ has coordinated the FARE East European Development Project supported by UEFA in the lead up to EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. ‘NEVER AGAIN’ has set up the East Europe Monitoring Centre documenting racism and xenophobia across the region.

More information:
www.supportersaward.com
www.farenet.org