The “All In Plus: Promoting greater gender equality in sport” joint European Union – Council of Europe project received the Grand Prix Edouard Eskenazi from the Association Française du Corps Arbitral Multisports (AFCAM).
The AFCAM Executive Committee and its President Patrick Vajda unanimously decided to grant this prize to the “All In Plus” joint project, in recognition of its work highlighting the benefits of gender equality in officiating and more specifically promoting women’s refereeing.
The Edouard Eskenazi Grand Prize stands as a testament to innovation, teamwork and dedication within the realm of multisport officiating, recognising initiatives that enable refereeing to progress. By selecting “All In Plus”, AFCAM recognised the efforts made to promote gender equality in officiating, in particular through its data collection in more than 20 European countries.
“We are immensely proud to receive the Grand Prix Edouard Eskenazi from AFCAM,” stated Francine Hetherington Raveney, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Council of Europe’s Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS). “This accolade not only recognises our collective endeavours but also reaffirms our unwavering dedication to promoting gender equality in officiating at European level and beyond.”
The award ceremony which took place on 5 April 2024 served as a platform to explore the three pillars of the “All In Plus” project. Over 220 representatives from Olympic, national and school federations and referees’ associations as well as other stakeholders were brought together on the occasion of the 39th AFCAM General Assembly.
More information about the “All In Plus” joint project:
“All In Plus: Promoting greater gender equality in sport” (1 March 2023 – 28 February 2025) is the follow-up project to the “All In: towards gender balance in sport” joint project (1 March 2018 – 31 October 2019). Its overarching goal is to highlight the benefits of greater gender equality in sport and its key objectives are to ensure that the relative invisibility of women in sport and the ongoing lack of awareness about gender imbalance in sport are brought clearly to the forefront. The joint project is structured around three pillars:
- Data collection and analysis in six key areas (leadership, coaching and officiating, participation, gender-based violence in sport, media/communication, gender equality policies and programmes).
- Updating of an online resource centre containing best practice examples.
- Media sensitisation: working with and through the media to ensure greater awareness-raising about gender inequalities in sport.
More information about AFCAM:
The French Association of Multisports Referees (AFCAM) was founded in 1985 with the aim of assisting officiators and referees in all sports. In November 2020, AFCAM brought together the refereeing body of more than 80 disciplines/130 structures, i.e. a total of 244,000 judges or referees, 30.32% of whom are women. Its mandate is to:
- bring together referee bodies from all sports disciplines in order to represent them in dealings with sports and other institutions;
- continue the task concerning the evolution of the status of the refereeing body (France);
- organise training courses common to several disciplines within the framework of a “Common Core” for judges or sports referees to improve the quality of the French refereeing body and that of the integration of the school sector;
- represent the French refereeing body before the IFSO (International Federation for Sports Officials);
- uphold the principles of non-discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, political opinion, philosophical affiliation, age and social condition and to fight against any form of violation of human dignity;
- show that the refereeing body is inseparable from the practice of sport and that, like any athlete, each judge or referee has rights and duties and thus demonstrate their strength: 244,000 judges or referees who are added together, representing only one entity – the French refereeing body.
More information about Edouard Eskenazi: Secretary General of AFCAM for several terms, he died of a serious illness a few weeks after his appointment as the lead judge of the Olympic Games London 2012 and was therefore unable to carry out his dream of being a referee at the Olympics. In 2012, AFCAM decided to create a grand prize that would allow to perpetuate his memory. The crystal block bearing his effigy is awarded annually to a person or an institution that has done much for the advancement of officiating. Normally, and with two exceptions, this award is never given to a referee and was never handed over to a sitting referee.