For the past two years, Swedish Professional Football Leagues has carried out a municipal project aimed at strengthening cooperation between elite clubs and their home municipalities. A total of seven elite clubs have participated in the project to date.
– The work has had a positive effect, including structured discussions and concrete results, says Kaveh Sarvari, Head of Events and Private Market at Swedish Professional Football Leagues.
The purpose of this cooperation has been to demonstrate the importance of elite football for the municipality and to get the municipality and the local elite club to work more effectively together. Swedish Professional Football Leagues has shown how elite football, as Sweden’s largest popular movement, creates identity and engagement for many residents, and how important elite football is for both tourism and the local business community. The project has been led by Kaveh Sarvari from Swedish Professional Football Leagues together with Staffan Isling, former CEO of Sweden’s Municipalities and Regions (SKR).
The clubs and municipalities that took part in the project are Halmstads BK / Halmstad Municipality, IK Brage / Borlänge Municipality, IK Sirius Fotboll / Uppsala Municipality, Trelleborgs FF / Trelleborg Municipality, Degerfors IF / Degerfors Municipality, Landskrona BoIS / Landskrona Municipality, and Örebro SK / Örebro Municipality.
The work has included reviewing the club’s contributions to its local community and aligning them with the municipality’s plans and budgets. Municipal officials, club leadership, local residents, grassroots clubs, and members have also been interviewed. Afterwards, municipal leaders—both politicians and officials—have been brought together with the club’s board and operational management to present the work being done and hand over further processes to both parties.
– My impression is that clubs and municipalities have taken steps in their cooperation, created an understanding of each other’s operations, and realized the importance of working much more closely together in order to succeed in maintaining an elite team in their cities in the future, says Kaveh Sarvari.
One outcome that has already emerged from the collaboration between elite clubs and municipalities is football’s contribution to public health in the municipality, more focused discussions about stadium issues, and shared priorities regarding community engagement.
