Councillor Antònia Maria Estarellas and the president of the FFIB, Jordi Horrach, have signed an agreement to tackle this social scourge.
The Government of the Balearic Islands, through the Ministry of the Presidency and Public Administration, and the Football Federation of the Balearic Islands (FFIB) have formalised today, Monday, the signing of a collaboration protocol for the prevention, detection and early action in situations of violence in the field of grassroots football. The event took place at the federation’s headquarters and was attended by the councillor Antònia Maria Estarellas and the president of the FFIB, Jordi Horrach, as well as the director general of Emergencies and Interior, Pablo Gárriz, and the coordinator of the Tutor Police Programme, Rafel Covas.
The protocol, promoted by the Government through the Public Safety Institute of the Balearic Islands, does not entail any financial cost for the administration and aims to establish a framework for joint action to eradicate violent behaviour from an early age and promote a safe environment at football grounds.
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The Government and the Football Federation of the Balearic Islands signed a protocol to prevent violence in grassroots football
Under this agreement, the government will develop educational materials for families, coaches and referees, design preventive digital resources, carry out specific training for police tutors and develop a protocol for action in cases of harassment.
For its part, the FFIB will be responsible for ensuring the participation of police tutors in training courses aimed at new coaches and coordinators, as well as the organisation of informative and preventive sessions, also given by police tutors, aimed at both active coaching staff and the families of players in grassroots football. In addition, it will be responsible for communicating to the ISPIB the most relevant cases of violence detected to assess the preventive intervention by the police tutor. It also undertakes to disseminate bullying prevention resources through the EIVO TV platform, to raise awareness and directly reach the different actors in the sporting environment.
The agreement foresees a progressive implementation and in the first phase will be applied to the grassroots football teams affiliated to the FFIB, reaching about one hundred underage players, as well as their coaches and coordinators. Subsequently, it will be extended to the rest of the clubs on the islands.
Red card to violence on football grounds
The councillor Antònia Maria Estarellas, who thanked the FFIB and its president for their predisposition, as well as the work and involvement of the Tutor Police service in drawing up this protocol, emphasised that a useful and effective tool was needed to, through coordination, prevention and training, give a red card to violence at football grounds from an early age, as well as to reduce the cases of violence in the stands which, unfortunately, every year occupy a large number of football matches, to show the red card to violence on football pitches from the earliest ages, as well as to reduce the cases of violence in the stands which, unfortunately, every year occupy pages in the newspapers or minutes on television and radio, and which also end up being suffered by children and young footballers on our islands’.
For his part, Horrach said that ‘today is a very important day because from the first minute that this legislature (in the FFIB) began, in September, we have taken many steps against violence that have led us to substantially lower the level of aggressions’. Thus, he stressed that ‘we have punished very harshly all those who have had inappropriate behaviour, but today we take the step that we have demanded from the beginning to the Administration: to have the help of public forces and police guardians to reduce violence and ensure safe and educational environments for all children and young people who are part of our grassroots football’.
The initiative for this agreement arose as a result of the experience of the Tutor Police programme in schools concerning cases of bullying among minors. As Rafel Covas explained, ‘many students say that the sporting arena, especially football, is also the scene of violent behaviour, a reality that prompted the promotion of a specific protocol to act with a preventive and educational approach’.
The Government has insisted that the fight against this social scourge requires the involvement of all agents: administrations, federations, clubs, families and professionals. Councillor Estarellas also explained that this protocol is in addition to other initiatives promoted during the current legislature in terms of prevention, such as the Safe Parties programme, through which training and guidance are offered in educational centres on the risks associated with youth leisure activities.