Growing up

Cliftonville Football Club were pleased to recently take part in a UEFA pilot operated by the Irish FA which helps demonstrate the true value of football to and in the community.

Launched in 2015, the UEFA GROW programme is the central business development platform to help national associations throughout Europe grow the game in a systematic and strategic manner.

To build a coherent business case and to help attract investment, UEFA sponsored the development of a comprehensive, rigorous football-specific SROI (Social Return on Investment) model to establish the impact that mass participation in football has across a spectrum of economic, health and social outcomes. In turn, this has enabled a monetary value to be placed on people’s regular participation in the game at national, regional and Club levels.

Cliftonville’s data was inputted into UEFA’s modelling and primarily focused on our grassroots, academy and development set-ups at all levels. It also measured various non-football programmes including community and mental health initiatives.

This produced measurable information, both numeric and as monetary values, showing the contribution and savings Cliftonville FC makes to society as a whole.

The full report, along details of how the information was collated and how the results were generated, is reproduced here.