'Keep Up With the Girls' on Football Pitches across Europe!

‘Keep Up With the Girls’ is a brand new European Union-supported project aimed at getting women and girls with and without intellectual disabilities involved in football.

Special Olympics - Keep up with the Girls

‘Keep Up With the Girls’ is a new Special Olympics project, supported by Erasmus+ across 20 European countries, aimed at getting women and girls with and without intellectual disabilities involved in football. Learn more.

Football pitches in 20 countries across Europe are coming alive with activity this summer as women and girls with and without intellectual disabilities (ID) claim their place on the grass as part of the ‘Keep Up With the Girls’ project! From Spain to Slovakia and from Bulgaria to Belgium, Special Olympics sports events—along with the pan-European awareness campaign—aim to show every girl deserves the opportunity to play football.

A cut-out of a girl jumping in the air to kick a ball with a colourful graphic background.

The ‘Keep Up With the Girls’ awareness campaign is being backed by Special Olympics Global Ambassadors Didier Drogba and Cafu, FIFA Legend, Verónica "Vero" Boquete, Netherlands football star, Kirsten van de Ven, as well as other stars from the worlds of sports and entertainment such as Special Olympics Global Ambassador Nicole Scherzinger, Special Olympics Board of Directors member, Natalia Vodianovaand WWE Superstar Finn Bálor. These stars and others—as well as Special Olympics athletes—had the chance to show off their football skills in a special campaign video aimed at encouraging women and girls to get involved in the Beautiful Game! This video as well as other campaign highlights will make a splash across social media in the 20 campaign countries between 25 May and 2 June 2019.

A cut-out photo of two female footballers high-fiving with colourful graphics in the background.

With football fever rising as the FIFA Women’s World Cup returns to Europe this summer, now is the perfect time for Special Olympics and the European Union via Erasmus+ to join forces and encourage all women and girls to get out on the pitch and show their stuff.

‘Keep Up With the Girls’ runs alongside Special Olympics’ wider European Football Week project—now in its 19^thyear—which will see a wave of 450 football events, involving a staggering 40,000 participants take place across 50 European countries.

Keep Up With the Girls Challenge

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Facebook Competition: Terms & Conditions

With thanks to FIFA, Special Olympics is running a Facebook Competition challenging our supporters to #KeepUpWithTheGirls for European Women’s Football Week 2019!

To enter the competition, participants must create their own challenge video (see above example) and pass it on by nominating a friend. They must then post the video or a link to the video in the comments below the original competition post.

More information: