Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) has launched the Safe Football Project, to safeguard the rights and wellbeing of Australia’s professional footballers.
Following a collaboration between the union and A-League Women players since 2021, Safe Football Project aims to make professional football as the safest available sport for women – by providing a platform to identify, address and reduce risks of abuse and harassment.
When a revelation came to light of Matildas legend Lisa De Vanna facing non-recent sexual harassment, grooming and bullying during her career, it prompted the creation of the project with her disclosure in 2021.
With other high-profile abuse cases in football worldwide, it saw an urgent need for the PFA to conduct a systemic review of the players’ workplaces and experiences.
FIFPRO, the World Players’ Association, and human rights advocates, have also helped to develop the Safe Football Project as areas of the current regulatory framework were addressed.
To achieve a safer workplace in professional football, the Safe Football Project identifies two key recommendations:
- A Collaborative, Wholesale Review of Current Safeguarding Frameworks
- Take Urgent, Interim Actions
The PFA conducted surveys with A-League Women players and collected the results via anonymous responses. Among the findings from 2023, 45% of players experienced harassment or abuse, but did not tell someone about it; from a total of 172 survey responses.
PFA Co-Chief Executive Kathryn Gill commented on the launch of the initiative:
“A safe workplace is a human right. Our members’ safety and wellbeing at work are our most important priority. However, the Project has shown that Australian football, like most sporting leagues, is falling short,” she said via press release.
“We activated the Safe Football Project not just as a response to past failures but to encourage everyone involved in the sport to address these serious and confronting challenges proactively.
“The next step is to work together with all stakeholders in Australian football to implement best practice safeguarding measures that are shaped by the people they are designed to protect – the players.
“Finally, I would like to acknowledge and thank the many players who so actively contributed to the development of the Project and the courageous women who have spoken publicly about their experiences of abuse and harassment in the hope of being a catalyst for change.”
The Safe Football Project will play a crucial role in providing a safe and welcoming environment for players, in a high-performance industry that has seen serious incidents of abusive behaviour in recent years.
To read the Safe Football Project report and its findings in full, click here.
