The extent to which overall PA and/or VPA is gained through sports club participation versus other settings needs to be further studied. Nonetheless, it can be argued that sports clubs have an important position in PA promotion for younger populations.

This paper seeks to review the current international health-promoting sports club (HPSC) research, drawing together findings based on case studies from various countries to illustrate the status of HPSCs. In addition, future challenges for HPSC research and implementation are considered. The review includes six case studies from five countries. In summary, there are two major research themes in this area, namely 'research into HPSC activity' and 'research into HPSC networks'. The first theme investigates the extent to which sports clubs and/or national sports organisations invest in health promotion (HP) - both in policy and practice. The latter theme is driven by an intention to widen the scope of HPSCs to reach novel internal actors, like parents, siblings, etc., and/or external non-sporting bodies, like communities, schools, etc. The future challenges for HPSC research require a better understanding of the motives, barriers and capacities of sports clubs and coaches. Sports organisations, clubs and coaches generally support the intent of the HPSC concept, but even with the best evidence- or theory-based HP programmes/guidelines/standards, nothing will happen in practice if the nature and capacities of sports clubs are not better acknowledged. Therefore, a call for embracing implementation science is finally made to enhance implementation.

Setting and Objective: For decades, the World Health Organisation has promoted settings-based health promotion, but its application to leisure settings is minimal. Focusing on organised sports as an important leisure activity, the present study had three goals: exploring the health promotion profile of youth sports clubs, identifying objective club characteristics (e.g. size, type of sport), predicting the presence/absence of health promotion in youth sports clubs and identifying perceived motives and barriers to health promotion in youth sports clubs, thereby improving the basis for policy guidelines. Method: Respondents were representatives from the board of 154 youth sports clubs. Data were collected through an online survey, including the health-promoting sports club index (HPSC-I). Linear regression and analysis of variance were used to identify predictors and differences. Results: Even though the motives were strongly supported, a majority of youth sports clubs were rated as low health promoting on the HPSC-I (59%). Overall, linear regression indicated that clubs founded more recently, offering multiple types of sports and offering both recreation and competition scored higher on the health promotion indices. Health promotion not being a priority of the board and lack of expertise were identified as the most important barriers. Conclusion: Progress is needed before youth sports clubs can truly be considered health-promoting settings. Policy suggestions are made to address the barriers, for example, financial incentives to maximise efforts and establishing collaborations between sports clubs and health promotion experts.

Objectives: To better understand the role sports club coaches can play in health promotion (HP), as well as factors supporting this task, this study compared coaches’ and players’ perception of coaches’ HP activities and tested whether coaches’ basic need satisfaction predicted coaches’ HP activities mediated by self-determined motivation to coach. Design: A cross-sectional design was employed. Multivariate analyses were used to compare coaches’ and players perceptions of HP, while structural equation modelling was used to test the model. Setting: Community football clubs in the south east of France. Method: A sample of 101 coaches and 404 players from 18 soccer clubs completed a questionnaire assessing HP activities’ perceptions. Coaches also completed scales on basic need satisfaction and self-determined motivation. Results: Similar patterns were found for coaches and players’ answers, with only a few differences, especially in the Respect for Oneself and Others dimension. Moreover, basic need satisfaction predicted Respect for Oneself and Others through self-determined motivation, while self-determined motivation was related to a Healthy Lifestyle, but basic need satisfaction and self-determined motivation were not linked to Substance Use. Conclusion: Results highlight few differences between coaches’ and players’ perceptions of coaches’ HP activities. Coaches’ HP activities are sparse, but seem to be perceived by their players. Self-determined coaches were more likely to promote a Healthy Lifestyle and Respect for Oneself and Others. The lack of relationship between motivational variables and Substance Use could potentially reflect the complexity of drug and alcohol prevention in sports clubs.

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