Mid-May saw the project team of the Erasmus+ funded project “Financial and Business Literacy in Sport for Athletes and Coaches” meeting physically for the first time to coordinate and align its tasks. FB-LS is led by NOA of Slovenia, and the EOA collaborates in the project as a partner, especially in the promotion and dissemination of the following outputs.
What is FB-LS?
FB-LS addresses the problem of low financial and business literacy in athletes and coaches, which may contribute to sport integrity issues, manipulation, match-fixing etc. Research has shown that financial problems could result in issues of sport integrity including abuses of position, irregularities in sporting results, match-fixing etc. Athletes and coaches with financial problems are an easier target of organised crime and criminal elements. The issues can include problems with financial and decision making during and after an athlete’s career, athletes’ loss of reputation and wealth, and club scandals.
What will FB-LS accomplish?
The project partners intend to develop training and educational materials for athletes and coaches, implement workshops for both target groups, and prepare an IT tool for online learning to improve the financial and business literacy of athletes and coaches.
The workshops and the IT tool should provide knowledge to
- prevent sport integrity issues, and
- facilitate the transition to conventional employment following their professional career.
Who is involved in FB-LS?
The project is led by NOC of Slovenia under the leadership of Ales Solar. Partners are the Lithuanian National Olympic Committee, Austrian Olympic Committee, Olympic Committee of Serbia, Volleyball Federation of North Macedonia, University of Ljubljana and the European Olympic Academies. The team is completed by the external experts Aaron Hermann and Miha Urek.
What happened in Ljubljana?
After online meetings over the past year, the project team conducted a multi-day workshop in order to familiarise with the project, discuss the work packages, deliverables and administrative issues. Another important agenda item dealt with the mapping of current offerings for athletes and coaches that was developed through feedback and information from the partners on the specific situation in the respective country. The EOA was represented by staff members Soenke Schadwinkel and Jelena Boskovic.
The EOA will report on further developments of this three-year programme. If you have any questions or want to get in contact with the FB-LS project management, please contact info@eoaolympic.org.
