“Turning around an oil tanker”: Recommendations for a safeguarding program in football

Despite increasing awareness and reports of wrongdoing in sports such as professional football there remains a lack of safeguarding education targeted at adults to address this behavior. Thus, there is a need to develop safeguarding education programs based on the experiential knowledge of adults in football. The present study explored knowledge users' recommendations, as a means to co-produce a safeguarding education program to address maltreatment in football. Guided by a social constructivist approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 safeguarding and welfare personnel (nine who identified as females and ten as males) who work within British clubs and organizations ranging from English Premier League (EPL) through to the English Northern Premier League Division One. The participants’ roles ranged from Chief Executive Officer; Vice Chairman; General Counsel; Club Development Officer; Head of Safeguarding; Designated Safeguarding Officer; Safeguarding Case Officer; Academy Safeguarding Manager; Head of Education and Welfare; Player Care and Welfare Officer; Head of Education and Player Care, and Coach. Through a reflexive thematic analysis, knowledge users discussed shaping safeguarding education in professional football, and the best way to deliver safeguarding education. Knowledge users highlighted the need for safeguarding programs to be designed and delivered at individual, club, and systemic levels to be effective. Furthermore, these programs need to be underpinned by a cultural intervention to safeguarding education in professional football. From a research perspective, the present findings emphasize the value of collaborating with underrepresented groups to create meaningful change in safeguarding in sport. Lastly, the present study provides the foundation for future research to evaluate the effectiveness of a safeguarding education program in football in practice.