Assessing Accessibility in European football clubs’ stadia: Developing a European Accessible Football League Scale

Research has shown that for people with disabilities and older adults, there are substantial differences in the supply side of accessible services and facilities, quality of service and experience at sport stadiums. This has led to increasing political, legal and social pressures on national governing bodies and professional football clubs to enhance accessibility, quality of service and experience for supporters with disabilities (SwD) and ageing supporters, described as the ‘new generation of sport consumers’ (reference withheld for anonymity). Sport management literature at present focuses primarily on regulatory pressures to ensure that stadia meet existing accessibility requirements, while at the same time most of the updated legislation and guidelines on access to stadia fail to incorporate the quality of service and experience for these supporter groups. Very few studies have sought to examine how professional football clubs seek to manage their human rights obligations and accessibility at contemporary stadia through policies and processes designed to cater to the needs and expectations to these groups of supporters.