Finally, we have once again had a football summer filled with positive tournament experiences for children, young people and adults all over the country. Football summer is joy, community and some broken dreams. The responsibility lies with all of us who are in and around the activity. After reading the column “Breddefotballen’s shadow side” on Ytring, two needs arise for me, one is to confront the author that what he describes is not in line with the values of sport and football, and at the same time describe a shared responsibility that starts at the top. When children and young people choose to participate in football, they should of course get exactly that, participate. You do not participate when you sit on the bench for the entire match, the entire season or the entire tournament. Participation means receiving the ball, taking the throw, responsibility for the penalty kick and helping to decide tactics for the next match. There is of course a connection between actual participation and the desire to continue. Through the Quality Club concept, the NFF offers support and guidance to clubs all over the country. The point is to find each individual club’s starting point in order to secure the activity right through to the teams. Do we achieve this every time, no, we continue to work on it, yes. So the paradox arises when a Quality Club has the required framework in place, for example a sporting plan and coaching training, but the coach and team manager do not comply with this in practice. From the NFF’s side, we see clubs and teams all over the country working hard to set a good framework for coaches, players and volunteers both on and off the pitch. The knowledge of 350 Quality Clubs, over 50 percent of all active children and young people in Norwegian football, is that mistakes are also made in these clubs, but that they correct the mistakes more quickly based on a framework that they have created in their club, precisely because they have a common framework. NFF Kvalitetsklubb will soon enter its 10th year as the leading concept for clubs in children’s and youth football in Norway. It has been 10 years with a lot of learning for both associations and clubs. How should we as a federation support the clubs, coaches, players and all the volunteers? How should we, as a federation, manage the responsibility that has been given to us through decisions at the Thing that deal with values and priorities? There are several answers to this, and the NFF’s solution is, among other things, not to give up. We will go out to the clubs, where they are, and support them in their efforts to facilitate the activity based on our common values. We must stand in the games and dare to raise the perspective, because actual participation is important, both for football itself, but also in a larger societal perspective. One of the NFF’s values is courage. I believe that we who are in and around Norwegian football have a shared responsibility when someone is not included, when someone does not feel safe. Then we must be brave and speak up. The values of the NFF do not work if we do not use them. Then everyone must speak up: me, a club manager, a coach for a team, an uncle of a player. For this, the values in practice are that they create security, open for inclusion and provide courageous children, young people and adults – both on and off the pitch. Follow the debate:
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Football’s shared responsibility – Speech
