Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) has today publicly launched the Safe Football Project, an initiative designed to further safeguard the rights and wellbeing of professional players in Australian football. 

The Project, which has been in development by the union and players from the A-League Women competition since 2021, aims to establish professional football as Australia’s safest sport for women by providing a platform to better identify, address, and remedy incidents and risks of abuse and harassment.

The catalyst for the Project was the revelation that Matildas legend Lisa De Vanna faced incidents of non-recent sexual harassment, grooming and bullying during her career. Her disclosure in 2021, along with high-profile abuse cases in football worldwide, underscored the urgent need for the PFA to conduct a systemic review of the players’ workplaces and experiences.

Leveraging the global expertise of FIFPRO, the World Players’ Association, and human rights advocates, the Project has identified areas in the current regulatory framework that require urgent attention while also ensuring the PFA’s capacity to respond effectively to abuse and harassment has been greatly enhanced.

The PFA has produced a Report outlining the process of establishing the Project in the following report, published today.

Click here to read the Report.

PFA Co-Chief Executive Kathryn Gill commented on the launch of the initiative:

“A safe workplace is a human right. Our members’ safety and wellbeing at work are our most important priority. However, the Project has shown that Australian football, like most sporting leagues, is falling short.

“We activated the Safe Football Project not just as a response to past failures but to encourage everyone involved in the sport to address these serious and confronting challenges proactively.

“The next step is to work together with all stakeholders in Australian football to implement best practice safeguarding measures that are shaped by the people they are designed to protect – the players.

“Finally, I would like to acknowledge and thank the many players who so actively contributed to the development of the Project and the courageous women who have spoken publicly about their experiences of abuse and harassment in the hope of being a catalyst for change.”

To achieve its objective of creating a safer workplace in professional football, the Safe Football Project identifies two key recommendations:

1) A Collaborative, Wholesale Review of Current Safeguarding Frameworks

The game must conduct a comprehensive review of current safeguarding frameworks, co-managed by the PFA, Government, Football Australia, and the Australian Professional Leagues. This review will focus on power dynamics, organisational culture, player voice, coach education, remedy routes, policy review, and bystander intervention.

2) Take Urgent, Interim Actions, including:

  • The establishment of an independently operated “landing space” where players can share concerns anonymously, managed by trusted peers and representatives dedicated to player protection;
  • Implementation of an emergency protocol for handling concerns that fall short of formal complaints, allowing for interim safeguarding measures such as supervision;
  • Support for player education initiatives to increase awareness of their rights and the processes for seeking remedy;
  • Enhanced independent support for players, both during formal complaints and in the pre-investigatory stage; and
  • Co-creation and publication of a charter of rights, to be placed in the locker room of each club, uniting all players under a common standard of safety and respect.

Later this year, the PFA will host a Safe Football Conference in Melbourne that will bring together stakeholders from the Australian football industry and industry experts to address issues around player wellbeing and safety.