European football industry leaders select 12 sustainability finalists for Reimagine Football Challenge

This Reimagine Football challenge resulted in 74 submissions from 17 different countries. Experts from the Football Innovation Platform – comprising of KNVB, Johan Cruijff ArenA, City Football Group, and UEFA – selected 12 entries, which are invited to pitch their ideas to the international football community and to further investigate how the solutions can be applied in practice during the Collaboration Event.

The jury, consisting of Jan Dirk van der Zee (KNVB Chairman of amateur and women’s football), Henk van Raan (Johan Cruijff ArenA Chief Innovation Officer), Pete Bradshaw (City Football Group Director of Sustainability), Michele Uva (UEFA Director of Football and Social Responsibility), and Andrea Traverso (UEFA director of financial sustainability and research), have selected 12 organizations for the final event:

Go Green | Greener Mobility

— You. Smart. Thing.

— Ridebee

— Slinger

— Fynch Mobiliy x Social Brothers

— 5T Sports Group

— Pipple

Why Waste | Circular Waste Management

— The Waste Transformers

— Searious Business

— Bio Technical Limited

— Join the Pipe

— KRNWTR+

— CSU

This edition of the Reimagine Football challenge series has invited companies worldwide, ranging from start-ups to established corporations, to come up with innovative ideas to help football towards a sustainable future for two challenge subjects:

#1 ‘Go Green’

How to track and/or reduce the carbon footprint of fans travelling to, and from, stadiums and/or amateur clubs?

#2 ‘Why Waste’

How to reduce litter and make waste management (plastics, unsold inventory, and/or other types of waste) more circular in and outside of the stadium and/or amateur clubs?

The mission of the Reimagine Football Platform is to build a worldwide ecosystem of innovators to keep on innovating football. This community will keep on growing by launching three challenges per season. The next challenge is about fan experience and will be launching end of January.

If you are curious about this next challenge and how you can become part of the Reimagine Football community, you can visit ReimagineFootball.com for more information.

Reimagine Football is an initiative of the KNVB, the Johan Cruijff ArenA, UEFA, City Football Group and AFC Ajax and co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.