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The session was entitled ‘From Clubs to Communities: Sports and Radicalisation - insights, gender considerations and tools for local practitioners’. 

‘NEVER AGAIN’s co-founder Rafal Pankowski, who is a sociology professor at Civitas University in Warsaw, shared insights from the Association's decades of experience in using football to promote social inclusion, e.g. the UEFA EURO 2012 ‘Respect Diversity – Football Unites’ program, which he coordinated across Poland and Ukraine.

Pankowski detailed how ‘NEVER AGAIN’ successfully implemented educational initiatives for schools, promoted hundreds of Inclusive Zones, trained stewards and officials, and worked with monitors during the tournament. These actions in both countries contributed to a friendly atmosphere during the historic tournament.  

The session explored how football's mass appeal can be leveraged to reach different social groups, including vulnerable youth, which is critical in challenging extremist influences. The presentation also addressed contemporary challenges, such as the infiltration of football fan circles by far-right actors and the spread of xenophobic propaganda in stadiums directed against refugees from Ukraine and other countries. 

In a significant update to the association's international advocacy, Pankowski also highlighted the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association’s call for a boycott of the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States. Pankowski stated that participation in the tournament under current conditions would contradict the core values of diversity and inclusion that the association has championed for decades. 

The EU Knowledge Hub, established to bridge the gap between research and practice, serves as a platform for practitioners and policymakers to exchange best practices in preventing violent extremism across the continent.  

‘Our work has proved that football can be a powerful engine for positive social change,’ said Pankowski. ‘By fostering a culture of respect on and off the pitch, we can marginalize extremist tendencies and build more inclusive societies’. 

The ‘Let’s Kick Racism out of the Stadiums’ campaign was initiated by the late Marcin Kornak in the mid-1990s as the first anti-racist sports campaign in the region of East-Central Europe. Disabled since the age of 15, Marcin Kornak was the leader of ‘NEVER AGAIN’ and a visionary advocate for using culture and sport to combat social exclusion. 

Since 1999, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has been a founding member of the FARE (Football Against Racism in Europe) network. On 8 March 2026, the FARE network named Dr Anna Tatar one of 12 leading women fighting discrimination in sport. This honours her work with the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association, including her role in documenting hate crimes for the 'Brown Book' monitoring report.  

Founded in 1996, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is Poland’s leading anti-racist organization. It monitors hate speech and crimes through its ‘Brown Book’ and runs educational campaigns ‘Music Against Racism’ and ‘Let’s Kick Racism out of the Stadiums’. 

UEFA EURO 2012 ‘RESPECT Diversity - Football Unites' project report: 
https://www.nigdywiecej.org/pdf/en/Respect_Diversity_Project_Report.pdf  

Rafal Pankowski on the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association’s call to boycott the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Trump’s USA: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BM1zzVWwIg  

More information: 

www.NeverAgainAssociation.org  
www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity  
www.twitter.com/StowNIGDYWIECEJ  
www.linkedin.com/company/never-again-association  
https://neveragainnw.bsky.social  
https://www.instagram.com/stowarzyszenie_nigdy_wiecej