Euro ’12: Bio Sausages and Sustainable Beer

With the current results of ‘die Mannschaft’ at the UEFA Euro ’12, German football is on the rise. But how about social commitment and innovation in the German football world? It seems that the Germans are leading in this area as well. The largest sport federation of the country is the Deutscher Fussball Bund (DFB) which organizes around 80.000 matches per week for its 7 million members. ‘Due to our size, DFB is able to communicate important values and messages such as the importance of sustainability,’ says Wolfgang Niersbach, secretary-general of the DFB.

“Mag ik dat zeggen? Ja dat mag ik zeggen!”

Sustainability and cycling: there seems to be an obvious connection. Cycling is indeed way more sustainable than for instance Formula One. However, during major cycling events such as the Tour de France, the Giro or the Vuelta, there is an impact on the environment.

Sports as a success factor for social innovation

During the FIFA World Cup in South Africa we have seen that sports can serve as an important tool to integrate different cultures. But there are more positive side effects of sports. During the World Cup there were many initiatives in the media about soccer in the townships.

Feyenoord is going to ‘Score South’

Feyenoord wants to show more societal involvement in its own region. For that reason the club commences the project ‘Scoring on South’ (Scoren op Zuid) which kicks off next season. In this collaboration with the municipality of Rotterdam Feyenoord will primarily focus on ‘sport and education’. “We are a people club and want to show what we stand for,” says marketing coordinator Claudia Vermoen of Feyenoord.

Homeless World Cup 2015

For the 13th time in history, the famous World Cup Football for homeless people will be organized. Amsterdam was announced as the city to host the annual event in 2015. Between 12-19 September the Museumplein in Amsterdam will welcome more than 500 homeless participants from all over the world to strive for the championship.

London 2012: Floating Venues or White Elephants?

Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing and London: hosting cities for the Olympic Summer Games in the last 20 years. The largest sporting event in the world is still growing (from 285 athletes in 1896 to 11.028 in Beijing 2008) with a significant impact on the hosting countries. Governments are navigating between economic growth on the one hand and a minimal environmental impact on the other hand. Bearing this in mind, is it still possible to organize mega-events such as the Olympics in a sustainable way?

Did FIFA drink too much?

Beer must be sold at all World Cup venues in 2014, FIFA has insisted. This means that Brazil need to change its laws. For FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke this is a non-negotiable: "Alcoholic drinks are part of the FIFA World Cup, so we're going to have them. Excuse me if I sound a bit arrogant but that's something we won't negotiate. The fact that we have the right to sell beer has to be a part of the law."