MD2279 UEFA European Women’s Championship 2021

Background

1. The English Football Association (The FA) has announced that it will be bidding to host the UEFA European Women’s Championship in July 2021.

1. The FA has opened a Host City Selection Process to choose up to eight cities/stadia in England to include within its bid to UEFA. The FA must submit its bid to UEFA by 31 August 2018, with prospective host cities/stadia required to submit applications to The FA, including signed host city agreements and guarantees, by 31 May 2018.

1. The FA has expressed a desire to host the Final of the tournament at Wembley Stadium, with potential interest in staging up to three Group Stage fixtures at a smaller stadium (c20,000 capacity) in Greater London.

1. For London to be included within The FA’s bid to UEFA, the city is required to commit to meet the Host City Requirements, as stipulated by UEFA, and the Mayor is required to sign a series of agreements to confirm these commitments.

The Event

1. The UEFA European Women's Championship, also called the UEFA Women's EURO, is the pinnacle international women’s football competition in Europe. The competition, held every four years, is the women's equivalent of the UEFA European Championship. The tournament is held in one single or two neighbouring European countries.

1. The 2017 event was hosted in the Netherlands and attracted record crowds and TV audiences. A total of 254,000 spectators attended the 31 matches, with a global TV reach of 165 million.

1. England last hosted the tournament in 2005, with 115,000 spectators attending the 15 matches. In 2005, 39% of all match day spectators were from outside the host city regions.

1. The event presents an opportunity to:

• • • Promote women’s football in London;
    • Create a strong narrative around women’s and girls’ participation in football and build a long-term community engagement programme in the build up to both EURO 2020 and EURO 2021;
    • Use the inspiration of EURO 2020 to build excitement, profile and ticket sales for the Women’s game and the 2021 tournament; and
    • Host the Final of both the Men’s and Women’s EURO at the same stadia in consecutive years.

1. In August 2017, The FA announced its intention to bid to host the UEFA Women's EURO in England in 2021. With the increasing appetite for women’s football in this country, there is a desire to promote the women’s game and grow participation among girls and women.

1. The FA’s approach to the bid is to create a unique, diverse and compelling case to UEFA, reflecting England’s profile as a leading nation for hosting major sporting events and showing the country’s commitment to growing the women’s and girls’ game.

Host City Requirements & Budget

1. In keeping with UEFA’s requirements around the UEFA EURO 2020 Championship, each host city is required to commit, through legal guarantees, to:

• • • Develop a security concept and meet the costs associated with delivering a safe and secure Host City for teams, officials, media and fans;
    • Develop and deliver plans for emergency and non-emergency medical services for teams, officials, media and fans during the tournament;
    • Encourage 75% of attending fans to use public or shared transport, or walk/cycle to the stadium – offering transport links from the city centre to the stadium;
    • Offer traffic management solutions to aid teams getting to the stadium;
    • Protect UEFA against ambush marketing and counterfeit activities during the tournament in ‘clean zones’ i.e. approx. 1km perimeter surrounding the stadium;
    • Undertake a city dressing programme for two weeks prior to the tournament and for its duration. To offer the space free of charge and the Host City must pay for the installation/maintenance and dismantling costs;
    • Support the overall promotion efforts of the tournament, including providing advertising space and other branding inventory in the Host City for free; and
    • Deliver a Fan Zone within the city for all or part of the tournament.

1. Of these commitments, the two items with the largest budgetary requirements are the city dressing and fan zone programmes.

• • • Host City Dressing Programme – Like for EURO 2020, the city is too big to implement widespread coverage. Instead, we will target locations that are likely to be visited by event attendees, including: key transport hubs; fan zones and last mile routes.
    • Fan Zone Programme – UEFA’s fan zone requirements are less extensive than for EURO 2020. We propose utilising Trafalgar Square as a fan hub for the final week of the tournament, providing a meeting point for fans, community football demonstrations, small sponsor activations and limited F&B in the week building up to the Final. There is also potential to screen both semi-finals (not hosted in London) and the Wembley Final live.

1. Based on our experience of UEFA EURO 2020, we have developed the following indicative budget that will be required to deliver the Host City Requirements in London. The Security and Policing costs have been excluded from the budget as we expect this to be funded by UK Government as per the arrangement for EURO 2020.

* In addition to the cash budget identified above, the GLA is required to put forward promotional assets to raise the profile of the tournament in the immediate build up to and during the event. The GLA will look to use owned assets to fulfil this obligation and offer promotional support as a value in kind contribution to The FA/UEFA, rather than paying for third party owned spaces.

1. GLA Budget Profile Forecast:

1. The GLA’s costs are linked directly to delivery of the Host City Requirements, as identified in 1.11 and there is no requirement for an underwrite to be provided for wider event activities. The above budget and profile is a best attempt at this stage to forecast expenditure and timelines. Should The FA’s bid be successful, we will revisit the budget and profile in further detail prior to mobilising the project. Delegated authority is sought through this decision for the Mayoral Director of External and International Affairs to approve amendments to the budget within 20% thresholds.

1. Event governance arrangements are yet to be confirmed. Should The FA’s bid be successful, it will seek to create governance structures reflecting the nationwide reach of the tournament, whilst recognising the need from host cities for localisation of decision-making. We will work with The FA to ensure robust and transparent governance of the event, locally and nationally. Delegated authority is sought through this decision for the Mayoral Director of External and International Affairs to approve the event governance arrangements should The FA’s bid be successful.

Legal Requirements (Host City Agreements and Guarantees)

1. In order for the bid to go forward, The FA and the Mayor of London is required to sign a Staging Agreement, agreeing to deliver the tournament in accordance with the requirements of UEFA. In addition, The FA and the Mayor of London is required to sign the Host City Agreement, which imposes a number of obligations upon the GLA, largely related to the practical requirements of staging the event (as referenced in paragraph 1.11). The Mayor is also required to sign a letter of guarantee, confirming to UEFA that the GLA will adhere to UEFA’s safety and security guidelines for delivering the tournament in London.

1. The Host City Agreement, to be signed by the Mayor on behalf of the GLA, sets out the obligations and responsibilities to be placed on the host city by UEFA for the purposes of hosting the UEFA Women’s EURO 2021. The main obligations set out in the Host City Agreement are detailed in paragraph 1.11 of this paper.

1. A number of the obligations within the Host City Agreement cannot be delivered solely by the GLA, but in partnership with various city agencies and local authorities. As with the arrangements for EURO 2020, the GLA will commit to deliver the host city obligations in keeping with UEFA’s requirements and work with local partners to ensure that they are fulfilled.

The objectives of the proposed expenditure are to:

• support delivery of the UEFA Women’s EURO 2021 in London;
• support delivery of the GLA’s major sports events strategy, ‘London: Home of World Class Sport’;
• increase economic investment into London;
• increase international exposure of London; and
• increase opportunities for Londoners to engage with major sports events through opportunities to attend, volunteer at, and participate in community sport activity that is linked to, the event.

Under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the Mayor of London must have ‘due regard’ of the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation as well as to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not.

The Sports Team has consulted stakeholders and partners to ensure that as many Londoners as possible, including those with protected characteristics (as defined in the Equality Act 2010), are considered in the planning of the event and have the chance to be involved in some way, be that through playing, training, volunteering or supporting teams.

The Sports Team has consulted with Team London to ensure the Ambassador programme used to assign volunteers to Fan Zones and city-centre locations eliminates discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010. The Team London Ambassador programme is open to all that apply, regardless of race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment.

Appropriate assistance to all Londoners and visitors will be available at EURO 2021 Fan Zones and City Activations. The Team London volunteer recruitment strategy will extend to the EURO 2021 project, encouraging volunteers with language skills (specifically Chinese, French, Spanish, Italian and German) to join the volunteering programme; ensuring that the sites will be able to offer assistance to both Londoners and visitors with whom we have previously been unable to communicate, fostering good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

Planning is being shaped by ‘A Tourism Vision for London’ to ensure that visitors are provided with information in accessible formats to help them do more and see more in London; information is improved to help them find rewarding experiences and visitors and Londoners alike are encouraged to explore areas beyond central London and persons who share a relevant protected characteristic are able to participate in public life or in any other activity in which participation by such persons is disproportionately low.

The GLA has worked with Wembley Stadium to ensure that it is an accessible venue, with a relevant and effective strategy. Wembley's Access and Inclusion strategy was developed from the initial principle that the design of the Stadium should be inclusive to all. Wembley's Access and Inclusion strategy was developed in consultation with statutory bodies. The strategy will be used throughout the project to mark out the steps needed to be taken to meet the needs of persons who share a relevant protected characteristic that are different from the needs of persons who do not share it. Should additional venues in London be selected by The FA to host matches as part of the tournament, the GLA will work with the relevant stadium owners/operators to ensure that the venues are accessible, with a relevant and effective strategy.

1. Key risks and Issues:

1. Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

1. GLA support for the event will:

• support delivery of the GLA’s major sports events strategy, ‘London: Home of World Class Sport’;
• increase economic investment into London;
• increase international exposure for London as a major destination for world-class sport and tourism;
• support delivery of the new Mayoral Policy on Sport;
• support delivery of the Mayor’s Culture Strategy;
• promote social development in London;
• support the aims of ‘Inclusive and Active 2’ strategy for increasing participation in sport and physical activity amongst disabled people in London;
• support the Mayor’s priorities around volunteering; and
• contribute to achieving the Mayor’s ‘Tourism Vision for London’

1. The event will also deliver across a range of the Mayor’s priorities including community participation and youth engagement.

1. The GLA will ensure that the work of the EURO 2020 Legacy Group (set up to promote community engagement opportunities associated with the UEFA EURO 2020 tournament taking place the year prior to the Women’s EURO) is closely aligned to the UEFA Women’s EURO 2021 project team. The EURO 2020 Legacy Group is tasked with ensuring that the event has a lasting effect on the city and we intend for its remit to extend to include community engagement opportunities associated with UEFA Women’s EURO 2021.

1. The event volunteering programme will be delivered in partnership with Team London. This will include match, Fan Zone and city volunteers, including engaging the Team London Ambassador programme. Team London Ambassadors welcome visitors to London at tourist hotspots across the city and will be invaluable in and around Fan Zone areas and central London locations during the summer of 2021.

1. The proposal to support the event was approved at the GLA Events Steering Group (GESG) meeting of 21 March 2018.

Approval is being sought to authorise expenditure of up to £1.1m (including £0.1m contingency) towards the staging costs of the UEFA Women’s EURO 2021 football tournament. The authorisation of this Decision, will also allow for specific event delivery agreements and guarantees to be signed by the Mayor and other City representatives prior to a bid being made.

The forecasted expenditure of the £1.1m is split over two financial years, with £0.2m in 2020-21 and £0.9m within 2021-22. The current split is based upon best approximations at this early stage of the bidding process. Should the hosting bid be successful, a more detailed revised budget and profile will be produced prior to mobilising the project.

The expenditure of £1.1m will be funded by the Major Events Reserve.

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Mayor fall within the statutory powers of the Authority to promote and/or to do anything which is facilitative of or conducive or incidental to the promotion of economic development and wealth creation and social development within Greater London and in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:

(a) pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;
(b) consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and
(c) consult with appropriate bodies.

In taking the decisions requested of him, the mayor must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty; namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the Mayor should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

Officers must ensure that any external services required for the project be procured in accordance with the Authority’s Contracts and Funding Code (the “Code”) and with the assistance of Transport for London’s procurement team. Furthermore, officers must ensure that appropriate contractual documentation be executed by both the Authority and the relevant contractor prior to the commencement of the required services.

The officers must ensure that the host city agreement and the attendant guarantee be carefully considered and that legal advice be sought, where necessary, before the Authority enter into any binding legal commitments.

Any function exercisable by the mayor on behalf of the Authority may also be exercised by a member of staff albeit subject to any conditions, which the mayor sees fit to impose. To this end, the Mayor may make the requested delegation to the Mayoral Director of External and International Affairs, if he so chooses.