For the past two years the Malta FA has embarked on intensive project whose main objective is to create awareness and prevention of domestic abuse and violence in particular through an number of interventions with teams participating in the Women’s Leagues.
Violence against women represents one of the major societal problems that the European Union is determined to tackle. Football is not exempt from domestic violence and gender inequality and often faces discriminatory circumstances, even at the level of youth teams.
Project GOALSCORE aims to fight violence against women, raise awareness and promote football institutional support for gender equality.
This innovative project sets out to create and implement a training methodology for football coaches, enabling them to define and identify abusive, coercive and disrespectful behaviour against female athletes.
Coaches are an important role model in young people’s lives and can play an essential role in the prevention, intervention and response by (domestic) violence situations.
Together with its local partner, the Malta Women’s Lobby, and also its international partners in this Erasmus+ funded project, the Football Social Responsibility Department within the Malta Football Association, has carried out a number of “goalscore sessions” with local football clubs, players, coaches, administrators and the local community.
The sessions have so far included also a number of football festivals promoting and celebrating women in football, not only from an inclusive point of view but also to highlight social issues, in particular domestic abuse, gender-based violence and mental issues related to physical and mental abuse.
“In the initial stages, together with our partners, we went through a research and desk study phase, which also included studies into the awareness of how domestic violence is perceived,” said Peter Busuttil, who leads the FSR department at the Malta FA, and also a number of football-related projects dealing with social issues.
“How we recognise that this is happening to our team-mates, what to do, what and how to report and ultimately how to prevent it.”
Role to play
Surveys, interviews and research were carried out with players, coaches and administrators primarily.
The stark reality is in a nutshell that very often cases of domestic violence are subtlety ignored and that we need to be aware that incidents, however small from verbal bullying to actual violence, unfortunately, lead to deteriorating situations.
Football has a role to play.
Goalscore is condusive to that role. It engages directly on the ground, in the pitch and in the dressing room.
The Malta FA has embarked on a number of practical sessions with clubs to engage with them directly on creating prevention, awareness and action; where with provide a gateway to support to the victims, their team-mates and coaches.
In a more visible manner, the Malta FA has held a number of awareness campaigns on match days and will continue to do so as part of its outreach not only to players but also to supporters and the community at large.
This included one of a number of round tables with stakeholders to discuss the way forward.
The importance of having strategic local partners like the Malta Women’s Lobby and other international partners like the Portuguese FA, the Romanian FA, and their local NGOS, as well as the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia are fundamental to the success of this project beyond the verbal aspects.
In the coming months the Malta FA will continue to promote the project with local clubs at all levels.
For more information visit www.projectgoalscore.com for more information about the project and write to the Malta FA directly on fsr@mfa.com.mt to learn more about how you too can engage in our social responsibility projects.
