Identifying Best Practice in Women's Football - FIFA/CIES ...

that the clubs continue this relationship. It is important to explore a link between thecommunity and the burgeoning commercial activities of the club. A few communityopportunities and best practices found in the research include the following.4.9.1 Holiday campsTurbine Potsdam offers regularly taking place football holiday camps, of around 5 days forchildren from 6 – 12 years old. 163 Camps such as these are extremely beneficial for the clubin terms of revenue, gaining fan loyalty at a young age, and raising brand awareness in thelocal community. Additionally, these camps could also be beneficial to exchange experiencesbetween different clubs on a regional as well as national level.4.9.2 Football schoolsIn Germany, the DFB has introduced the concept of “Elite football schools for girls.” Thereare currently five certified Elite football schools for girls existing: Ahrweiler, Potsdam, Jena,Freiburg and Saarbrücken. These schools are aimed to better train young players and helpthem to combine their education with high performance sport. The DFB gives out acertificate to schools that fulfil their 18 criteria and supports each elite school with 30,000Euros per year. In the upcoming two years, there are plans to double the number of certifiedschools. 164 Clubs can capitalize on this DFB development by encouraging a partnershipbetween the schools and the women’s team, much like what occurs in Potsdam, developing arelationship with these young players and their families.A similar project occurs in England. The English Super League conducted studies toinvestigate families with 9-12 years old girls. 165 This demographic investigation deliveredsome useful information to inform the marketing approach. This helps to form a betterunderstanding of the target group potential, which the FA theorised are football interestedgirls and their families. This helps the FA structure the running of the Super League, as wellas the Centres of Excellence and various grassroots initiatives like FA Skills, where there willbe a strong connection between the future Super League clubs and schools.""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""163 FFC Turbine Potsdam (2010) Turbine-Feriencamps 2010 [WWW]. Available from: http://www.turbinepotsdam.de/feriencamps.php[Accessed 15/06/2010].164 DFB - Deutscher Fußball-Bund e.V. [WWW]. Available from: http://www.dfb.de/ [Accessed 31/05/2010].165 Hayward, Interview, 12, May 2010."99"