Building European Safe Sport Together 2.0

What is BESST 2.0?

The project Building European Safe Sport Together 2.0 is funded by the Erasmus+ programme from the European Commission. It builds on the results of the predecessing project BESST 1.0 that provided a unified definition (“transgressive behaviour”), legal safeguarding frameworks for sports organisations, and sports events organisers as well as a comprehensive awareness & education toolkit to use free access.

BESST 2.0 will develop a virtual reality tool for an immersive examination of the topic of transgressive behaviour in sport. The tool will be launched in summer 2026 and will then offer athletes, coaches and entourage at many sporting events a brief opportunity to put themselves in a situation where transgressive behaviour occurs and to understand more about its nature and how to deal with it.

In addition, a study is being conducted on the effectiveness of using VR for behavioural change. The whole project will be accompanied by an awareness-raising campaign designed to draw attention to the topic of safe sport throughout Europe.

The project pillars:

1. Knowledge building

on the use of Virtual Reality (VR) tools for behavioural change in the field of sport as a new educational method

2. Developing VR tool

for empowerment and education in the field of safe sport

3. Implementing VR tool

for empowerment and education in the field of safe sport

4. Awareness raising

by disseminating an awareness campaign on the topic of safe sports to reach the wider sports community

What is BESST 1.0?

The project Building European Safe Sport Together (BESST) is funded by the Erasmus+ programme from the European Commission. BESST developed a unified definition for the foundation of a harassment and abuse-free European sports environment. With strong partners delivering academic research, a continent-wide network of organisations for dissemination, legal and project management, events delivery and sports organisations, the project has a full circle range of professionals with four key deliveries that effectively raise the maturity of the European sports on its safeguarding readiness.

The project delivered:

1. Definition of Abuse and Harassment

Development of a modern definition of transgressive behaviour in sport, based on extensive literature review of the most recent studies.

2. Legal Framework for Sports Organisations

Assessment of safeguarding statuses of European sports organisations and event organisers based on extensive research, survey and interviews with sports organisations.

3. Legal Framework for Sports Events

Legal frameworks with policies and procedures proposal for European sports organisations.

4. Awareness & Education Toolkits

Awareness and education toolkits designed to help sport organisations educate their members and networks about transgressive behaviour through their communication channels.

The two-year project, with a very consistent dissemination process, was able to provide effective change in terms of safeguarding for the continent based on the horizontal value of digitalisation – together with inclusion through the dissemination across a wide range of European countries with different languages, cultures, economic performances and sporting realities.