Sligo Rovers fans have secured the June Bank of Ireland Healthy Football League prize. For the past three months, Sligo Rovers staff have been busy behind the scenes encouraging their wider community of fans to get active and improve their health an
Sligo Rovers fans have secured the June Bank of Ireland Healthy Football League prize.
For the past three months, Sligo Rovers staff have been busy behind the scenes encouraging their wider community of fans to get active and improve their health and well-being. This approach has worked extremely well as Rovers quickly gathered a large group of Healthy Football League participants and were rewarded with a Bank of Ireland sponsored monthly prize.
Shane Crossan on behalf of Sligo Rovers said: “The Healthy Football League provided a great opportunity to engage our fans in a fun health and well-being programme where they could also involve their friends and family. We are delighted at how this has worked having accumulated so many participants and consequently, we are now very happy that our fans efforts were recognised by winning the June Healthy Football League Monthly prize."
As a supporter of the League of Ireland, Bank of Ireland was instrumental in encouraging League of Ireland clubs to engage their fans in this unique initiative designed to get communities active. Almost 4,000 fans represented their local clubs amassing thousands of miles of healthy movement and exercise which translated as competition points for their clubs.
The Bank of Ireland Healthy Football League is an online, app-based, competition that encourages fans of League of Ireland football clubs to exercise and to gain the benefits of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The idea behind the Healthy Football League app is to use the inherent rivalry between Irish football fans to motivate them and their friends and families to get physically active.
The initiative encouraged every member of the community to score points for their favourite club by using the app while walking, cycling, or running.
Derek O’Neill of the FAI’s League of Ireland department said: “This was the first Healthy Football League in Europe with every National League club represented. People have made huge efforts around the League of Ireland and local grassroots club communities to support their local clubs while at the same time enjoying the benefits of a more active lifestyle. Huge credit must go to Bank of Ireland for their support in enabling League of Ireland clubs to forge closer links in local communities and facilitating an opportunity for thousands of people to get more active. Congratulations to Sligo Rovers on winning the Healthy Football League monthly prize for June and huge credit must also go to all the other clubs who encouraged their fans, friends and families to embrace a healthier lifestyle.”
Rob Heffernan, programme ambassador from Bank of Ireland concluded: “It was great to see thousands of people getting out and active over the past three months in support of their local football clubs. Hopefully, they’ll keep those new healthy habits going throughout the summer and beyond. Bank of Ireland was delighted to be involved in such a positive initiative which impacted on the health and well-being of communities all over Ireland.”
While this season’s competition has concluded, anyone can still download the app free of charge to track their own fitness progress. Simply download and sign up to your favourite club! For more information on how the Healthy Football League works, see www.healthyfootballleague.com
