This conference was the closing event of a joint two-years project called »Queering Football – Tackling Homophobia and Promoting Anti-Discrimination around Major Sport Events« co-funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ sports program.
You can 
download the conference report here.
About conference
On the weekend of November 17/18 representatives from international and national sports organizations, grassroots organizations, NGOs, clubs, athletes, LGBT fan groups, activists and academics came together in Ljubljana for a two-day-conference hosted by SPOLINT and VIDC-fairplay to discuss the issue of homophobia in sports. The conference “Queering Football: Addressing Homophobia at Mega-Sport Events” took place at the Faculty of Sports at the University of Ljubljana.
In anticipation of the Football World Cup 2018, the conference focused on concerns voiced by LGBT communities about safety and discrimination surrounding the event in light of discriminatory anti- gay-legislation in Russia. 70 participants from 17 different countries took the opportunity to exchange information, present their initiatives, build and strengthen networks and discuss progress made and challenges ahead.
About the project
The conference was the concluding event of a very succsesful international 2-year-project. “Queering Football – Tackling Homophobia and Promoting Anti-Discrimination around Major Sport Events” (January 2016 – December 2017) was co-funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ sports program.
Homophobia – prejudices and violence against LGBTIQs – is still one of the main and untackled problems in European football. Homophobic chants and physical attacks as well as ignorance and exclusion still happen on a daily basis. With Queering Football we raised awareness for a wider recognition of homophobia as a main problem and where aiming to create an inclusive football and fan culture where respect is celebrated and solidarity is cherished. The Queering Football project used the UEFA EURO 2016 in France as a pan-European communication platform to tackle discrimination and hatred. Questions of inclusion, equality and minority rights have to be on the agenda.
One main outputs of Queering Football have been a handbook on fundamental rights and anti-discrimination standards in the context of mega sport events, new banners of the exhibition "Against the Rules - Lesbians and Gays in Sport" (
Korpela and
Dincdag) an the 
Football Pride Week in Berlin in October 2016.
The partners in the European project are: European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF | www.eglsf.info), Football Supporters Europe (FSE | www.fanseurope.org), Fédération Sportive Gaie et Lesbienne (FSGL, France | www.fsgl.org), Unione Italiana Sport per Tutti (UISP, Italy | www.uisp.it), Spolint (Slovenia |www.spolint.org) and VIDC-fairplay (Austria | www.fairplay.or.at) as the lead organization