SAFEGUARDING

Every child has the right to grow up in a caring and safe environment.  Safeguarding in football is the process of protecting children (all girls and boys under 18) from harm by providing a safe space in which to play football and be active.

A key part of child safeguarding is spreading the message about keeping children safe and building a culture of always acting in the best interest of all children. Children are young, vulnerable and innocent and so it is the duty of the coaches to provide a safe environment, free of threats, fear or obligation at play.

Bhutan Football Federation identified two groups that need safeguarding – children under 18 and youths under the age of 20. These groups must be safeguarded from three main types of harassment – emotional harassment, physical harassment and sexual harassment.

Emotional harassment includes any behaviors that have the effect of psychologically harming children or young persons. This is seen and done in every sports field where the coach mentally exploits young children like instance forcing a child to participate in a game, yelling at a child, giving negative nicknames and ignoring children who perform badly in games. Such things leave a huge impact on young children and affect their relationship with the sport. What used to be a fun football game may turn into a scary nightmare for them because of their coach.

Another form of harassment that is very common in Bhutan is physical harassment. This happens when a non-accidental injury or harm to a child is caused by another person like a parent, coach or caregiver. For example, physical punishing a young person for losing a game by hitting, throwing equipment, pushing or shoving are all examples of physical abuse.

Sexual harassment is the last type of harassment. This includes inappropriate touching/fondling during coaching, using sexually inappropriate languages to a child, sending dirty text messages and sharing rooms with children.