IT has been a dark, dark, time for football this past week with the still ongoing, shocking revelations of child abuse and that leads me to wonder and worry how many other sports may find some skeletons coming out of their cupboards soon.
Now, we have to get one thing clear – football is not the perpetrator. It is a convenient vehicle to use, and it is fair to say it is also being abused by those who have committed these heinous acts. The authorities do, however, have a duty of care to those who are suffering from the past deeds of a few despicable characters, as well as protecting those currently participating.
This leaves us with the age-old problem of how we protect our children but still give them enough space to enable them to grow and learn and make their own mistakes. There is no doubt that this is every parent’s worst nightmare and their first instinct will be to protect their child, at all cost, and unfortunately that may be to the detriment of sport. When the confidence of parents is lost, participant numbers will drop.
One of the problems we have is how do we as adults identify and communicate the ‘fine line’ to our children? This will involve teaching our children to respect their coaches, whilst giving them the strength and courage to understand and act accordingly, particularly when the right thing to do is to tell the coach to ‘get lost’ and report the approach.
Closer contact with parents and regular meetings, with and without the children in attendance, to discuss progress may help. A specific induction programme to include parents, coaches and children which would be delivered on an annual basis. Coaches would be trained to talk about what is allowable behaviour, not only from the participants themselves but more importantly from the adults involved with the club and throughout the wider sporting environment. This could become a strong, mandatory tool for all sports clubs.
Some people may think this is not a problem for Scotland or it is an issue just for football; that is not the case. Let’s not be complacent, or be proven wrong after the event, as by then another child will have suffered.
Social media may be used as part of the solution. Young people are very familiar with all social media sites. Perhaps creating and publicising a sports-specific whistle-blowing app that encourages children and/or adults concerned about the behaviour of those in authority, to air these concerns, albeit anonymously, could be beneficial? I know there will be sensitivities around this, but we must look at what is best to protect the vulnerable in our society.
We have to engage more with parents. For many years, sport was looked upon as a way for parents to get a little ‘down-time’. This is not a criticism levelled at parents, as I can clearly empathise with this statement and recognise it. My own son played hockey from a young age and at that time, as parents, we didn’t get involved with the club, we didn’t want to interfere. We gladly gave over our trust, and our son, to those who were actively involved in the day-to-day delivery of training and games. My son had a wonderful experience, meeting good people and making good friends, most of whom still form part of his close circle to this day. That is the experience I want for all children in sport.
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