Tonga Football Association’s Head of Social Responsibility and Just Play Manager, Mrs Palu Tu’amoheloa had the privilege to be amongst of more than 100 FIFA Learners from 70 Member Associations who graduated from the FIFA Safeguarding in Sport Diploma held at the FIFA Headquarter in Zürich, Switzerland.
The course started in 2019 and it was one of the FIFAʻs main focus to ensure that everyone involved in Football has a positive experience of the sport. Before this course was implemented, Social Responsibility Managers/ Just Play Program Managers of that time involved in the conversation and discussion of the best approach to be utilised in Oceania and Mrs Tu’amoheloa was one of them. It was supposed to be for 2 years only but because of the covid-19 pandemic, the program delayed-for another two years.
There were 5 courses to complete this Safeguarding Diploma. The Open University of Britain and FIFA partnered to deliver this course and it was done online. 72 hours of online classes and a week of on campus training. The on campus was held this year at the British FA and another group were held in France.
More than 100 graduates from 70 countries completed their Diploma and from Oceania, Mrs Tu’amoheloa was the only one along two ladies from New Zealand Football.
“The invitation from FIFA was for all Member Association and selection comes from CEO, President, and the Management. I was chosen because of my background on promoting Child Protection Policy and Code of Conduct through the Just Play program. I could see that in sport there are lack of knowledge and experience in the area and football is the only sport who’s pushing for this in Oceania through FIFA guardians. However, the International Olympic Committee in the last two weeks step us with the same approach by encouraging other sport to work towards safeguarding their athletes or players.” Palu to TFA Website.
“For me this course allows me to identify the types of abuse happened in sports or workplaces, the route caused of abuse, how to prevent abuse, how to report and the importance of working closely with local stakeholders and your management to ensure that everyone is safe and right responds are given to every reported cases.”Palu added.
In football or soccer, we have witnessed a lot of abuse cases in other confederation. We saw talented players and even staff and officials lose their opportunities to play and work due to abuse and harassment.
“Educating our people about safeguarding will not only prevent abuse but reduce number of cases that are likely to happen. There are types of abuse that have become a norm in the Pacific, but we do not know the emotional and physical impacts of it in the lives of our players or staffs. The language we used in our daily conversations that we treated as a joke has become harm for some of us but we are not aware of it and that is why safeguarding is crucial and a must to be implement in sport due to what I have discussed.”
“Most research see sport as a way of socialising and for some they joined sport because they feel safe in that environment. We do not want to see that sport change that beautiful idea. For the Pacific, sport becomes a source of income, it brings everyone together, and also it becomes a vehicle or tools to promote healthy lifestyles, gender equality, peace, social inclusive and wellness. This also applies to football or soccer. “
Mrs Tu’amoheloa emphasized the importance of Safeguarding to not only sports in Tonga but for every corner of Tonga, Government, NGO’s, Comnunity, Religious and most especially for Families.
“I do believe that we need to work with our local stakeholders and break away from culture of our main roles. For example, if you are a coach, your role may not only to teach a player how to kick a ball or score a goal but they also have a role to build his or her life skills such as respect. Government departments and Non-government organisations sneeds to build a point of connection or communication. Sports federations need to come up with solution to ensure that abuse and harassment are discouraged in their organisation. This can be done by implementing a proper case management tool for everyone with a proper approach for responding but keep in mind that safeguarding is not applicable to players only, it is applied to all departments and everyone involved in football.”
“Therefore I encourage the young ladies, children in Tonga to join Football as of now with my role as a Safeguarding officer I will ensure each persons safety in the Football environment and I will work with them closely and easier as a Female Safeguarding officer.”
“I would like to thank the President and CEO of Tonga Football Association for believing in myself and allowing me to do this course.” Mrs Tu’amoheloa concluded.
End.
