We talk a lot about community in sport. About teammates looking out for one another, coaches who know their players and families cheering from the sidelines. It is easy to recognise that sense of belonging when things are going well. But what about the moments when they are not?
Imagine a young athlete who has started dreading training. Perhaps the jokes in the changing room have stopped feeling like jokes. Perhaps a coach’s comments have become humiliating. Or perhaps they are struggling with something that has nothing to do with sport at all. Who would they tell? Would they know where to turn? And would they trust that speaking up would not make things worse?
These are not questions a club can answer with a poster on the wall. They are questions about what happens every day, between training sessions, competitions and conversations that may seem small to everyone except the person having them.
Mental health belongs in the conversation
Mental health is a fundamental right, not something to consider only after the sporting results are in. That does not mean asking coaches to become therapists or expecting sports clubs to provide clinical care. It means recognising that the way a club is run, the behaviour it accepts and the support it offers can affect how people experience sport.
Sport can bring friendship, confidence and a welcome break from everyday pressures. Yet participation does not make anyone immune to anxiety, distress or mistreatment. And the athlete who seems most determined on the pitch may be the one who finds it hardest to say that something is wrong.
We have long admired the athlete who keeps going, takes the pressure and never complains. There is value in perseverance. But when resilience becomes the only answer, it can leave people feeling that they must deal with every problem alone. A supportive team should make room for the opposite: the possibility of saying, “I need help,” without fearing what will happen next.
What the State of the Art tells us
SAFE Playground has published its State of the Art: Guidelines for Safe and Inclusive Environments, a review of existing research, European policy frameworks and good practices in sport. It explores mental health, discrimination, pressure, interpersonal violence and the practical challenges of safeguarding in sports organisations.
One recurring issue is the gap between experiencing a problem and feeling able to talk about it. The report describes barriers such as stigma, fear of losing a place on the team and uncertainty about confidentiality. For younger athletes, recognising inappropriate behaviour can be difficult in the first place, particularly when it has been normalised as part of training or team culture.
The report also draws attention to the people around the athlete. A coach may be the first to notice a change in behaviour, but needs the knowledge and confidence to respond appropriately. Parents can offer a listening ear, yet expectations about results can sometimes add pressure. Club leaders set the conditions for everyone else: whether rules are clear, concerns are taken seriously and reporting routes can actually be used.
The point is not that every club member must have every answer. It is that nobody should be left to work everything out alone.
Knowing about safeguarding is not the same as putting it into practice
There is more information about safeguarding in sport than ever before. Clubs can find guidance, codes of conduct and policy templates. These are important starting points. But a written policy is of little use if a young person cannot understand it, a volunteer has never been shown how to respond to a concern or someone is unsure who will receive their report.
The State of the Art identifies this distance between policy and everyday practice as a central challenge, particularly for grassroots clubs working with limited time, staff and resources. It points to the need for accessible training, clear procedures, trusted ways to raise concerns and leadership that treats safeguarding as part of ordinary club life rather than a document to file away.
And inclusion matters here too. People do not all face the same obstacles. The report discusses discrimination and barriers affecting women, migrant and racialised athletes, and LGBTQI+ participants. A club cannot assume that a single approach will work equally well for everyone; it needs to listen to the people who actually use its spaces.
Where SAFE Playground comes in
This report is a starting point for SAFE Playground’s next steps. The project is developing a multilingual online training programme with five modules, together with practical club resources, an updated Good Practices Protocol and a Communication & Complaints Channel. These are intended to help athletes, coaches, staff, families and club leaders understand what they can do and where to turn when concerns arise.
The project also plans a SAFE Playground Diploma to recognise clubs’ work in putting safeguarding measures into practice. The idea is not to declare any club free of risk. It is to encourage a concrete, ongoing commitment that can be seen in how a club operates.
So perhaps the question is not simply whether we call ourselves a community. It is what that word means when someone misses training, goes quiet after a match or says that something is not right. Do we notice? Do we listen? And do we know what to do next?
That is the conversation the State of the Art invites us to have — and the work SAFE Playground is taking forward with sports clubs.
The State of the Art report will be available on our website, which will launch in the coming weeks.