The new Recovery Through Sport programme will focus on rebuilding wellbeing, confidence and a sense of normality among young people whose lives have been disrupted, while also strengthening the evidence around the role sport can play in humanitarian and recovery settings.

Building the evidence

The Foundation has already worked with an independent consortium of experts in mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), sport and physical activity to review existing research and consult organisations across the humanitarian, MHPSS and sport-for-development sectors.

The conclusion is deliberately measured about what sport can – and cannot – achieve.

“Sport is not a substitute for humanitarian response, and it is not a quick intervention. But where the conditions are right, sport and physical activity can support routine, connection, belonging, agency, and safe participation for children and young people whose lives have been disrupted.”

Importantly, the Foundation also acknowledges that the evidence base remains limited, particularly in lower-resourced crisis and displacement settings. The new programme is therefore intended not simply to fund activity, but to help build knowledge about what works, where and why.

Partners rather than projects

Rather than inviting conventional project proposals, the adidas Foundation is looking for experienced organisations capable of developing the programme collaboratively.

Selected partners will need established MHPSS expertise, operational reach across crisis-affected or recovery settings, experience using sport or physical activity, robust safeguarding systems and an institutional commitment to research and learning. Shared decision-making and joint governance will also form part of the approach.

As the Foundation explains:

“Strong existing work matters. We are looking for partners with experience to build from, and the openness to strengthen, adapt, test, and develop what is still missing.”

That approach reflects a wider shift within sport-for-development towards longer-term partnerships and stronger measurement of outcomes rather than short-term interventions.

€6 million commitment

The adidas Foundation has committed €6 million across the selected partners and potential programme activities. Between one and three strategic partners will be chosen, with an initial partnership horizon of at least three years and the potential for further development.

The Foundation describes the relationship as something significantly deeper than conventional grant funding:

“A partnership with the adidas Foundation under Recovery Through Sport is not a transactional grant relationship. We are serious about evidence. We are serious about safeguarding. We are serious about quality.”

Recovery through sport

Applications remain open until 30 August 2026, followed by shortlisting in September, due diligence in October and a joint working session in Germany during November.

Recovery Through Sport represents an interesting attempt to move beyond assumptions about the social value of sport towards building stronger evidence around its actual impact. By combining multi-year investment, safeguarding, mental health expertise and structured learning, the adidas Foundation is positioning sport not as the solution to crisis, but as one potentially valuable part of a much wider recovery process.