Notes

Football and Health. In doing so, contributors share some of the challenges and the benefits of using professional football settings as a channel for connecting people to health improvement opportunities. In the understanding that football has been used to connect with hard-to-engage populations, Zwolinsky’s paper reports further outcomes from a gender-specific health promotion programme for men delivered in Championship and Premier League Football Clubs. Within the same national men’s health programme, Hulton and Colleague’s demonstrate how physiological markers have been to assess health effects with a hard-to-reach male population within one specific club. The First World War Christmas Day ceasefire is ‘perhaps’ one of the most commonly cited examples of how football has been used to build relations during conflict situations, albeit temporarily. In a different context, Tal and colleagues paper evaluating conflict mitigation and health improvement through football, offers an interesting contribution of how sport is being deployed to build community relations and resolve conflict. Guidance on evaluation advises that programme evaluations should not only assess impact, but also the process of delivery,9 Parnell and colleagues paper provides applied insights from football and school practitioners who delivered an extended physical education and school sport programme to develop lifelong participation in children/young people across primary schools. Zwolinsky and colleagues offer a short communication on the role of professional football clubs in the delivery of physical education and school sport. This line of interest in children’s activity continues through Nielsen and colleagues article that explores the influence of club football and school recess activity on overall physical activity levels of Danish children. Such contributions are an important part of wellrounded evaluations that provide the perspectives of a range of stakeholders when shaping future provisions. We have also been encouraged by critical reflections of practitioners on this special issue. Indeed, Lansley’s paper reflects the economic and policy debates of using sports-based intervention for health promotion. In preparing this compilation of papers, we have encountered practitioners who stand to benefit from building partnerships with colleagues with expertise in (I) conducting evaluation and (II) reporting evaluation and research outcomes in peer-reviewed mediums, reflecting the value of partnerships between football-led health improvement and evaluators.10 In preparing this special issue, we thank all who engaged with the call for papers. We hope that the offerings included in this issue will create interest and provoke both discussion and dialogue in shaping programme implementation, research and evaluation.