Wintertime in Denmark can be a long, dark, cold period which doesn’t really lend itself to outdoor sporting activities. DGI Underground saw this “winter gap” as a problematic time for street sport participants, who are often vulnerable members of the community and rely on the outdoor space as a facility for their sport. It also saw it as an opportunity to expand its street soccer programme by taking the street sport concept indoors, making it available all year round without compromising its urban flavour.

The MOVE project allowed DGI Underground to do just that, so it launched the programme Inside Street as its pilot project. Inside Street offered two events in November and December – a “panna” soccer skills workshop and a futsal tournament – which took place in venues that have the same features as outdoor street sport settings, like asphalt surfaces and urban music playing in the background. During the MOVE pilot project period, DGI Underground focused on developing the events in collaboration with street sport experts and it is now ready to make them a regular part of the winter fixture.

DGI Underground’s Project Manager, Frederik von Sperling, writes about the impact Inside Street has had on DGI and DGI Underground’s coordination of street sport, and highlights the future plans for the project.

“In overall terms the project Inside Street has helped DGI Underground, but first and foremost a majority of the street groups, to create a better environment for themselves, either by raising funds, obtaining new facilities, exploring new options or attracting new members.

Specifically, the two large scale indoor events carried out in the pilot project phase taught the 100+ young participants skills that they will use to carry out similar activities in their local communities across Denmark. This includes knowledge of the new sport and event management skills backed by a network and friendship base across the country within a growing street football community – a community that is now strengthened as an all-year entity.

As for DGI as an organisation, Inside Street has greatly enhanced our knowledge of how to create ‘street’ environments indoors. There were doubts about whether this was possible and these doubts have been erased, with the consequence that extended programmes will be carried out in the winters to follow.”

By Rachel Payne, ISCA