Child-friendly guide for German stadia

Article posted by Coliseum, June 25^th, 2024

Image: City-Press and Kindernothilfe

Kindernothilfe, together with the organizations KickIn! and In safe hands, has published a guide to help stadia in Germany become more child-friendly and inclusive.

The guide is aimed at clubs across Germany and is intended to help make the stadium experience as safe and inclusive as possible for children and young people.

Niklas Alof, Head of Children’s Rights and Sport at Kindernothilfe said, “The guide contains many of the children’s approaches to solving problems for clubs. It’s about match day organization, advertising bans, and entry and exit management.”

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The “Child-Friendly Stadium” project has relied primarily on the participation and views of children and young people.

Kindernothilfe board member Carsten Montag added, “They have a right to participate and are the experts in child-friendliness and inclusion. With their experiences and opinions, they have contributed to the successful outcome of the guide.”

For two years, children and young people from the Hertha BSC, VfL Bochum 1848 and SV Werder Bremen clubs worked on how to make football stadiums more child-friendly and inclusive.

To do this, they have, among other things, developed a project called “Children’s Stadium” and collected criteria for the guidelines during visits to stadiums.

“There should be separate cash registers for children so that we can get to them more easily and also pay with cash,” says Johnny (10), who took part in the project.

Participant Elina (13) added, “The signs for the seats are not always visible. In addition, seats in the family block that are a little higher than others would be good. So that smaller people can also see something.”

The German Football League (DFL) made the project possible through its PFiFF funding pot.

Thomas Schneider, Head of Fan Affairs at the DFL, said, “The ideas and ideas put forward are very valuable and should be taken into account even more when planning and implementing infrastructural measures so that child-friendly conditions are also taken into account at events right from the start.

“All fans should feel welcome in the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga stadiums, and of course this also applies to the youngest spectators.

You can find more information about the guide and the project here.

As one of the largest Christian children’s rights organizations in Europe, Kindernothilfe is also active in Germany. Since 2017, it has been offering training on child protection topics and developing protection concepts with schools, daycare centers and sports clubs.

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