Safe football at every level

UEFA is celebrating grassroots football this week as part of a campaign called Grassroots Week, an initiative which is gaining traction in Hungary. The Chance Festival, for example, was organized by the Grassroots Committee at MLSZ for the ninth year. The six target groups participating in this social programme (mentally handicapped, those with learning disabilities, visuallyimpaired, hearing impaired, those living in children's homes, players of street football) were represented by four teams each. The aim of the festival is for athletes with different disabilities and disadvantages to meet each other and show society that football is a real sporting experience for them too.

The Hársfa Cup provides an opportunity for athletes with intellectual disabilities to compete, while promoting the Special Olympics movement and football. This year was characterised by great matches, an excellent atmosphere, tricks, goals and saves. The XXIII. Hársfa Cup is a national football tournament played by seven participating teams on the Vasas pitch as part of the 20th European Football Week and European Sports Week.

The older generations are not be left without football either because within the framework of a veterans' tournament series, older footballers have recently been able to play at four venues (Dabas, Tiszavasvári, Békéscsaba and Siófok) and have played exciting matches in groups of 3 or 4 teams.

Of course, maintaining one's health is paramount, so players were only able to participate in the tournaments by following strict regulations. Among these measures, for example, the body temperature of each participant was measured at the time of entry to the venue, the organisers provided hand sanitiser and, where possible, people socially distanced so that amateur footballers, the elderly and the disadvantaged could enjoy the game safely.

As part of Grassroots Week, UEFA is inviting amateur footballers to share on social media which pitches they play on. The #myhomepitch hashtag is used for images.