Play Safe is the Football Association’s national campaign to focus attention on the vital importance of safeguarding in our national game.
The campaign is supported by the NSPCC and this week will be promoted across every level of English Football including the Premier League, English Football League, Barclays Women’s Super League and Barclays Women’s Championship, National League and across the grassroots game.
Play Safe is a year-round campaign that amplifies the importance of safeguarding in football.
This year’s Play Safe weekend takes place from Friday 27th September, starting with the first team's Championship fixture at Plymouth Argyle, with the theme this year to make sure everyone knows their role in safeguarding and what Play Safe is all about. Together, we can make the game safer, fun and enjoyable for everyone, everywhere, every time.
Here at Luton Town Football Club safeguarding comes first, so we ‘Play Safe’ every weekend.
We are proud to be supporting this national initiative which sees English football unite across one weekend, every season to highlight the importance of safeguarding.
Anyone’s love of football can be taken away by negative behaviour and abuse. Safeguarding prevents this from happening. A Play Safe weekend at the start of each season is there to put safeguarding at the forefront of people’s minds. It reminds everyone to watch, listen, talk, act in every football environment.
Stuart Cornish, our academy safeguarding manager, had this to say about the club supporting the ‘Play Safe’ Weekend: “As the academy and matchday safeguarding manager, it is my role to ensure that safeguards are in place in the club and academy. However, safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility, and that is why we are promoting safeguarding and supporting Play Safe.
“Officials, managers, coaches, parents, spectators, and players should all know what safeguarding is in football, feel comfortable and act if they have a safeguarding concern.
“At Luton Town we promote a positive environment. An environment where we keep our children safe, and we can all enjoy our football.”
This year’s Play Safe weekend has two main messages:
‘Everyone, everywhere, every time’ should have an understanding of safeguarding in football.
Everyone should ‘watch, listen, talk and act’ if they have any safeguarding concerns.
We therefore pledge to remind everyone that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and ensure that they are clear about the vital role they can play in keeping children and young people safe, no matter what the football setting.
Safeguarding is about creating safe environments and preventing children from experiencing harm or abuse.
Put simply, safeguarding refers to measures we take to protect our children – and keep them safe and well. Whether that’s your kids, the opposing players or even the ref, every young person has the right to enjoy football.
Our team captains and managers throughout our first team and academy will also sport ‘Play Safe’ armbands and pin badges as we also pledge to raise awareness of the campaign. This means no matter what role you have in football, you know your role and responsibility in making it a safe space for all.
In the pictures above and below, we brought club captain Tom Lockyer together with captains who will be wearing the 'Play Safe' armbands in fixtures this weekend: Charlie Emery (Men's U18s), Elly Wade (Luton Town Ladies), Carlton Morris (Men's First Team) and Jack Bateson (Men's U21s).
Photos: George Dunn
