FIBS and the association founded by Daniela Simonetti and Alessandra Marzari expand their collaboration with new initiatives against sexual abuse in sport
The collaboration between the FIBS and the Association becomes organic Change The Gamewhich started in 2020 with campaign support A Red Code for Sportaimed at sensitizing all sports bodies to insert disciplinary sanctions in their regulations based on the seriousness of the conduct of members who commit acts of violence and sexual abuse, in particular against minors and women.
Change The Game was born in 2018 on the initiative of Daniela Simonettisports journalist of ANSA, e Alessandra Marzaripresident of VeroVolley Consortiumto change the rules, support minors affected by abuse and violence, their families and allow the Federations to expel the guilty from the sporting context.
“It seems incredible that there are a hundred paragraphs that sanction spitting and not even one dedicated to violence and sexual abuse of women and minors.” Reminds us of Daniela. A shortcoming which must be remedied.
ChangeTheGame, together with the working group that includes the Vero Volley Consortium, FC Internazionale Milanothe Candido Cannavò Foundation / Gazzetta della Sportthe CIPM (Italian Center for the Promotion of Mediation) of Paolo Giulini, has identified the flaws in the sports system, which dilutes the offense linked to violence and sexual abuse within the violation of the rights of loyalty, probity and correctness, without guaranteeing an adequate disciplinary sanction, once ascertain responsibilities. Just think that the statute of limitations is only four years for all disciplinary offenses, but eight for those who alter the results of the competition. ChangeTheGame is fighting for the statute of limitations for offenses related to violence and sexual abuse to be extended to at least ten sports seasons. Victims are even painfully denied participation in the sporting proceedings, inappropriately assimilated to a third party.
The Coni Public Prosecutor’s Office, in its 2019 report, lists 86 cases from 2015 to 2019, just the tip of the iceberg, and has declared pedophilia a priority to be tackled together with matchfixing. “
The Association has also dedicated itself to spreading the theme with the patronage and constant proximity of the Council of Europe, with which it has entered into a permanent partnership governed by a protocol signed by both parties, alongside and Serie A League: within the Festival of women and girls, in a meeting organized by ChangeTheGame, the Director of the Youth Sector of Inter Roberto Samaden presented the first anti-pedophilia project in football.
The Association has published the first anti-abuse manual ChangeTheGame, Educating awareness against sexual abuse in sports and participated together with the CIPM in a government tender, gave life to a cycle of five meetings against abuse and violence together with the Candido Cannavo ‘/ Gazzetta dello Sport Foundation.
On 24 October 2020, the President of the FIBS Andrea Marcon participated in the first of these meetings to show the progress in prevention policies carried out by the Federation, including the request for criminal certificates and pending charges from its coaches, a fundamental battle of the Association.
ChangeTheGame has developed a code of ethics in line with the European ones and identified the causes of exclusion from the profession of technician and coach. Together with VeroVolley and FASI it carries out courses for the training of technicians on the subject of child abuse: among the speakers Paola Pendinomagistrate of the Court of Milan.
Among the testimonials of ChangeTheGame Sarah Abitbolseven times European champion in figure skating on ice who, with her denunciation, changed the French sports world, Anne Kursinskishowjumper, five Olympic appearances, two silver medals, who got the banning of his coach and 24-year-old tormentor post mortem, Khalida Popalcourageous footballer who managed to allow FIFA to disbar the president of the Afghan Federation for violence and abuse within the women’s national football team.
In recent months, ChangeTheGame has also made available several concrete tools to support the victims of their families. Tools, present and future, which will always be available on this page of the site.
Let’s start with Awareness Manuala publication, or rather, a synergistic pair of publications, a, Change The Game dedicated to parents, but also to teachers and sports technicians, to provide a framework of information and practical instructions with the aim of helping to understand the signs of a problem in the shortest possible time and how to deal with it; the second, Wins, Defeats and Mismatched Socksis a story aimed at the youngest, who, through the stories of three of their peers, Gloria, Olimpia and Primo, aims to prepare them to manage their entry and life in sports, with passions, great joys and, often , the great disappointments related to the result on the pitch, which is however only one aspect of doing sport and almost never the main one.
Other important opportunities for knowledge are the audio interventions offered through the podcast series No Coach, Stories of Abuse in Sportswhich take up the themes and cases dealt with by Daniela Simonetti in her book Herd impunity.
NO COACH PODCAST
Together with the CIPM, ChangeTheGame then won the tender from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Department for Family Policies “for the financing of projects for the protection and support of minors victims of sexual abuse and exploitation”, with the training program for athletes, parents and sports operators Let’s play in advance activated in Milan, Piacenza, Cagliari and Genoa. The initiative, after this first phase, is destined to expand to other entities (Federations, clubs, institutions) to create real Sentinels of Sportformed to watch and work so that the terrible stories that have happened so many times in the past do not repeat themselves.
The latest born and the object of particular attention by Daniela Simonetti, is the section on the association’s website for reporting of abuse.
“This is really delicate and we only got there when we found the most correct formula – underlines Daniela – whoever comes to us, children or families, does so by going through a painful process and to take this step they must overcome many obstacles, especially personal ones. and for this it must receive fast and effective answers from those who have the right skills to do so. We have a network of truly splendid psychologists and operators and we work with them to repair and reconstruct truly terrible situations. “
