By David Gold in Geneva
September 5 – Glasgow Celtic has won an award for community and social responsibility at the European Club Association (ECA) annual congress here, with Barcelona taking the award for the best club of 2011.
Also given awards were FC Baku of Azerbaijan, who took the best non-sporting achievement award, whilst FC Braga were the club who made the most progress last year.
Celtic’s award was made for their “Ability Counts” programme which was launched for sufferers of down’s syndrome in November 2010, which gives participants the chance to take part in football as well as improve their fitness.
The scheme has been a major success, and the Scottish club won the award following the decision of a three man panel consisting of UEFA vice-president Senes Erzik, Avraham Burg, the chairman of Hapoel Tel Aviv’s 2010 project winner Mitafot, and Ivo Belet, a Belgian member of the European Parliament.
Barcelona took their award for another stunning season in which they won La Liga for the fourth time in a row, as well as taking the European Champions League for the third time in six seasons.
Braga were the most improved team, having qualified for the Champions League and then finishing third in their group, meaning they dropped into the Europa League, where they reached the final only losing to FC Porto.
Baku were awarded for the best non-sporting initiative, the setting up of a local youth academy, with the state of the art facility giving more than 400 youngsters the opportunity to train.
Contact the writer of this story at zib.l1734852841labto1734852841ofdlr1734852841owedi1734852841sni@d1734852841log.d1734852841ivad1734852841