From players to team officials to match officials to broadcast media, there are over 200 people involved in making a tournament like the OFC U-16 Women’s Championship happen. So, what does it take to keep them safe?

OFC is committed to “creating a Pacific community where everyone can enjoy the game in a safe and welcoming environment,” explains OFC’s Safeguarding and Wellbeing Manager Palu Uhatahi Tu’amoheloa.

“We are driving this across Oceania Football Confederation departments and carrying it to our Member Associations. There’s strong emphasis on promoting safeguarding measures to ensure that each and every person involved not only gets to showcase their talents but has a positive experience during competitions,” she said.

This is no small task she explains, outlining the various approaches taken at the recent OFC U-16 Women’s Championship in Fiji.

“In addition to requiring each team to have a designated safeguarding officer, we also run a safeguarding briefing as part of the team arrival meetings held for all participating teams and match officials,” Palu explains.

This briefing outlines what safeguarding is and what actions can be taken if harm or abuse is suspected.

For the first time at an OFC tournament, in addition to posters in changing rooms with competition-specific safeguarding information, the accreditation passes issued to all OFC U-16 Women’s Championship participants included a QR code linked to a reporting form, meaning participants had the ability to report safeguarding concerns at all times.

“This also enabled all players and officials to have discreet access to reporting forms online if they would prefer this method as an alternative to reporting directly to the Safeguarding leads.”

Creating a safe competition environment also means considering how everyone involved in making the competition happen is aware of the potential impact of their roles on others, in addition to their rights and responsibilities within their work. At the OFC U-16 Women’s Championship, new ground was broken in this area when a safeguarding awareness session was held with the tournament broadcast crew.

“For the first time we met with the TV crew to present a safeguarding awareness session, where we engaged in a very deep conversation about their role and how their work intersects with the safeguarding space,” says Palu.

“It is motivating to hear from some of the officials that this is an eye opener for them to know that at certain levels what they need to be aware of to conduct their roles in a professional and ethical manner to suit the age group.”

Looking ahead to future competitions, OFC is exploring introducing videos and animations to continue raising awareness of the importance of safeguarding in football – in all spaces.

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. If you see something, say something.

If you have a safeguarding concern, please email [email protected]