FA PlaySafe Weekend

English football unites this weekend to promote Play Safe – The FA countrywide campaign to focus attention on the vital importance of safeguarding across our national game.

The Play Safe campaign is endorsed by the NSPCC and will be supported this weekend across every level of English football, including the Premier League, EFL, Barclays Women’s Super League, Barclays Women’s Championship, National League and across the grassroots game.

This year’s Play Safe campaign focuses on the safeguarding role that everyone can play – coaches, players, parents/carers, spectators, or volunteers – to keep children and young people safe, no matter what the football setting. 

This season the FA are asking clubs and leagues at every level of the game to make a Play Safe Pledge  and highlight the importance of safeguarding over the Play Safe weekend. This includes grassroots youth team captains wearing Play Safe armbands and youth team coaches wearing Play Safe pin badges, up and down the country in support.

In addition, as part of this year’s Play Safe campaign, the FA are also promoting their free online Safeguarding Awareness Course for Parents & Carers to raise awareness around safeguarding and how to report any concerns. The aim is for 100,000 people from across the game to have taken the course, which only takes 30 minutes to complete, by the end of 2024. The free course provides important information that guides parents and carers through questions they should ask to ensure the club or venue where children play football has the correct safeguarding policies, people, and practices in place.