The voluntary based sports system is challenged by societal changes. Firstly we observe a transformation in the sport activity pattern, whereas still more are involved with sport in a self-organized or commercial form and secondly the state’s overall financial ability is reduced. As the voluntary based sport is heavily state funded, the non-governmental sports organizations representing the voluntary sports clubs, feel they have to position the role of sport to legitimize their existence. In this quest the connection of sport and health plays a huge role. In Denmark the Football Association has launched an initiative called Football Fitness, which is a football based activity for health. The initiative is designed by the Football Association and realized by local voluntary football clubs. The aim of this paper is to explore the local translation of the initiative. Due to the organisational structure of the state subsidized voluntary sport sector, no club can be forced to organise Football Fitness neither be dictated how they organise it. Partly due to this fact, the initiative has a flexible design, with the possibility to incorporate local inputs. That means the realization comes down to the local organizing club, acting as a grass root implementer. The theoretical framework of the analysis is rooted in the institutional theories of translation (Campbell, 2004) and the pillar framework (Scott, 2014). The research is based on case study inquiry (Yin, 2014), including interviews, observations and document analysis. 4 cases have been conducted resulting in a cross-case synthesis. The data has been coded and condensed with pre-existing codes directing the coding in a hermeneutic deductive way (Creswell, 2007). The findings conclude that the implementation is heavily influenced by the unique institutional elements of each sports club, providing diversity in the diffusion of Football Fitness. Not two clubs does present it alike.
Key words: Football Fitness, Health, Sports Clubs, Sports Organizations, Sport Policy