Reimagine Football calls for innovative startups to help create memorable fan experiences

The Royal Netherlands Football Association KNVB, the Johan Cruijff ArenA in Amsterdam, and AFC Ajax have announced the next Reimagine Football startup and scale-up challenge to tackle urgent challenges in the football industry.

The organisations have been involved in organising previous Reimagine Football challenges spread over the past years. From the first innovation challenge in 2019, over 700 companies from 55+ countries have submitted their solution.

And over 70 solutions have since then been selected and implemented.

Reimagine Football started in 2020 when these organisations hosted a challenge on helping football recover and grow beyond the impact of COVID-19.

Real opportunities for innovations

This time, the Royal Netherlands Football Association KNVB, the Johan Cruijff ArenA in Amsterdam, and AFC Ajax have chosen three themes for the search for smart innovations in the field of fan experience:

• Personalised fan journey: how to enhance the fan experience of fans inside and outside of the stadium 
• The “WOW” for the crowd: how can you enhance the ambience both inside and outside the stadium; whether watching live in the stadium or watching from home
• Clean and sustainable stadium: how can you involve fans to keep the stadium clean and reduce waste? The solution should be market-ready and help stimulate and reward fans to prevent litter and clean up waste in their surroundings

The goal of these challenges is to bring the most promising solutions into football practice as soon as possible. The platform can be used by the football community and other groups to share information and encourage mutual collaboration.

Reimagine Football is supported by the European Union European Fund for Regional Development. It gives organisations the right access, acceleration, and means to develop innovative concepts and spread them across Europe.

The organising football organisations will review and select the most promising solutions.

Companies with creative solutions can apply online at ReimagineFootball.com. The registration deadline is May 8.