THE PROSPECT of the Pars sharing the Champions League limelight with European champions Bayern Munich is a mere pipedream.

But for one group of Athletic supporters, that dream will become reality tomorrow (Wednesday) as they take centre stage during the clash between Pep Guardiola's superstars and Arsenal.

The Dunfermline Athletic Football Fans in Training (FFIT) programme kicked off after clubs in the SPL in seasons 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 used themselves as a setting for a weight management group. Researchers behind the FFIT idea hoped that men's loyalty to their football team would encourage them to sign up and receive training by community coaches for a 12-week period.

Football clubs in Germany have looked at the FFIT model in a bid to adopt it at clubs across the country and a TV crew travelled to West Fife to film the Pars fans being put through their paces and learn more about the success of their programme.

Dunfermline's initiative is run by Gregor Tennant and Kelly Armstrong and has had 115 past participants, including former Press columnist Steve Ramsay, with those involved shedding around eight inches from their waist by taking part in sport and other activities, including football matches against other FFIT teams, body combat, boxercise, zumba and boot camp, as well as taking part in the annual charity Kiltwalk.

The crew from German channel ZDF travelled to East End Park to film the Pars FFIT participants in action and their footage will be shown during half-time of the Bavarians' clash at the Emirates.

Gregor said, "I was at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester doing a presentation on the programme and there were a lot of clubs from Europe there, not just football but rugby and other sports as well. They wanted to see how they could use their club's branding within the community and we also went to Everton in May where we met guys from clubs in Germany.

"There are clubs from there, Norway and South America who are looking at our programme which is great for us that they want to take on our model. There are clubs like Schalke, Werder Bremen and Wolfsburg who are big clubs in the community so it's great." Billy Singh, General Manager of the SPFL Trust which worked in partnership with clubs to encourage their involvement in the programme, said, “The interest in FFIT since we announced the success of the programme last month has been phenomenal, leading to huge interest within Scotland but also all manner of positive commentary from everywhere from Hamburg to Houston.

“This Wednesday’s broadcast on such a major European TV channel, not to mention during a programme showing a game of true global interest, is another brilliant endorsement of what has been achieved and will push more positive messages about Scottish football to a wider audience.” Professor Sally Wyke, one of the two Principal Investigators from the University of Glasgow, said, “It has been heartening to see all the positive publicity throughout the world following the ‘gold standard’ evidence that the FFIT programme can help men lose weight and keep it off.

“So much of the credit should go to all those who have taken part in the programme and really stuck at it - after 12 months, the difference in weight loss between men who did the programme and men in a comparison group, who did not do the programme, was 4.94kg.” The Dunfermline FFIT organisers will run a fresh programme starting next month and anyone who would like to get involved should email gregor@theparsfoundation.org.