To Örebro University

Objective: A single sports club, taken in isolation, can appear to be a quite small health-promoting setting. However, taken together, sport clubs and diverse forms of organized sports reach a quite substantial portion of the population, which makes the sports club a health promoting setting with great potential. To become a health-promoting setting, sports clubs need to take a comprehensive approach to their activities, aims, and purposes, for example to work with policies. The objective is to present an alcohol policy intervention conducted in Swedish football clubs.

Methods: For policy interventions to work, implementation is important. Based on Durlak and DuPre’s (2008) framework for effective implementation an analytical tool was developed for a sports club setting to analyze the football clubs implementation of alcohol policies. The policy intervention was initiated by the Swedish Football Association together with the national Alcohol committee and the Swedish temperance organization. The result is based on 15 interviews with project leaders and board members in eight football clubs.

Results: The implementation process is thoroughly manifested in the football clubs alcohol policy work. Six recommendations for successful implementation of alcohol policies in sports clubs are discussed; an explicit message; fit; internal policy dissemination; alcohol policy as a part of overall policy; support; and actors.

Conclusions: Sports clubs have potential to be or become a health promoting setting, however this is not something that happens automatically. The recommendations highlights the importance of good planning of a policy project, both when starting a policy intervention and also when a club just wants to develop some kind of policy. If the policy project is well planned, it will have more of an effect on the sports club’s environment and everyday activities.