On 11 and 12 April, the UEFA Child and Youth Protection Workshop took place at the Brdo Congress Centre in Slovenia. The event served as a unique opportunity for national football associations in Europe, represented by Child and Youth Protection Officers and Football Sustainability Managers, to share their progress in this field and learn from each other and invited experts.
On 31 March 2023, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) presented its first Protocol for the protection of children and adolescents.
On 9 February 2023, the Albanian Football Association (AFA) and Terre des hommes Albania (Tdh) signed a cooperation agreement in the field of child protection in football, in line with UEFA's initiative to develop national child protection policies for each of its 55 members. The agreement comes as a continuation of the previous collaboration to improve the quality of child protection in football, including Tdh's contribution to the drafting of two important documents of the AFA: the child protection policy in football and the code of ethics.
In December 2022, the Albanian Football Association (AFA) in partnership with Terre des hommes Albania organised a training session on “Child Safeguarding in Football”. Since a long time, the AFA has been committed to developing and implementing its policies for the protection and preservation of the safety of children in football, also based on the guidelines of UEFA and FIFA.
This sample anti-bullying policy (PDF) developed by NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU) provides an example of the procedures that should support sport organisation to ensure they are doing all they can to tackle bullying behaviour.
Sport organisations can use this sample to get an idea of the types of things they should be covering in their policy and use it to create their own.
‘Strength through Unity’ aims to inspire, activate and accelerate collective action to respect human rights and the environment within the context of European football through to 2030.
UEFA has announced the launch of its innovative Football Sustainability Strategy 2030 – ‘Strength through Unity’, a long-term commitment by UEFA.
Over the past six months, the Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF) has participated in the UEFA child safeguarding mentoring programme. This pilot project, which was implemented with the support of the international children’s aid organisation Terre des hommes (Tdh), aims to support UAF in developing and strengthening child safeguarding in football in Ukraine.
The Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) is one of the eleven UEFA member associations that were selected to participate in the UEFA child safeguarding mentoring programme. UEFA and Terre des hommes (Tdh) launched the six-month long pilot programme in January 2021, aiming to individually support the national associations in their child safeguarding efforts and strengthen the existing safeguards.
The Football Association of Moldova (FAM) in partnership with Terre des hommes Moldova is implementing the project “SAFE FOOTBALL FOR CHILDREN IN MOLDOVA”, funded by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) under the UEFA Football and Social Responsibility Programme and the UEFA HatTrick Assistance Programme.
The protection of children in football is a priority at international and national level, and the need to implement a child safeguarding policy in the football environment is promoted. Every child has the right to practice football in a safe and inclusive environment, free of any form of abuse, harassment or exploitation, and its non-insurance is a violation of children’s rights.