Our colleagues from Sport Birmingham have been invited to join a long-standing exchange programme put together by Frankfurt and Lyon. The collaboration is now in its seventh year and brings together a youth sports clubs from both cities. Last year’s sports camp brought together over 300 young people from Lyon & Frankfurt taking part in a week’s worth of sporting activity across 15 different sports, that were received in Frankfurt. This year, the event will be even bigger as it’s organised along the Euro Championship in Lyon. Like the previous years, the Sportjugend Frankfurt and the Office des Sports Lyon coordinate the exchanges, organize the joint programmes and support the clubs with their administrative processes.

Birmingham has been twinned with both cities for over half a century. This year we are celebrating 50 years of partnership with Frankfurt and we have been working with Lyon for over 60 years. We have been invited to a football and badminton exchange. The idea is to pilot the opportunity with two sports clubs from Birmingham in a “trilateral” exchange.

Participants will be funded through the European Erasmus+ funding programme including 21 young people from the Perry Barr and Ladywood constituencies In Birmingham. These young people have been selected from a football and  a badminton club and will be given the opportunity to play and develop sport with their French and German counterparts.

This year will be a pilot scheme with a view that each year the program will grow and develop in providing opportunities for young people by increasing the number of clubs participating through the work with International Sports and Culture Association (ISCA). Mike Chamberlain CEO of Sports Birmingham will represent our city at a civic reception with Lyon’s Deputy Mayor for Sport Yan Cucherat on Friday 8 July.
This will contribute to the anniversary celebrations and strengthening of ties with our European partners.