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The Football Association: Respect campaign

Interactivity makes the site and its lessons more memorable
Interactivity makes the site and its lessons more memorable
Film excels at driving home a point on an emotional level

How the FA is getting supporters to show respect

Challenge

Grassroots football in England is under threat. Each year, dozens of referees and thousands of children give up the game.

Why? They're driven away by aggressive behaviour from the touchline. The guilty parties? Too often it’s the parents.

Tackling this problem is a major part of the Football Association's Respect campaign. They needed a resource targeted specifically at parents on the touchline, which would inform, guide and support without lecturing.

Our response

The Respect Guide for Parents and Carers is a multimedia microsite that branches off the FA’s website.

It's a user-friendly resource that raises parents’ awareness of the problem and explains how best to show their support.

We used:

  • short videos showing the devastating impact oftouchline misbehaviour
  • interviews with respected professionalfootballers and pundits to add weight to the campaign
  • questionnaires to help parents decide forthemselves what appropriate behaviour looks, feels and sounds like.

 

The module is now required viewing for any parents or carers whose children join a club at grassroots level. Everyone who completes the programme gets an official FA certificate to prove it.

Result

Two years after launch, over 18,000 people had completed the module.

As a result, the number of young players and referees giving up the game has fallen dramatically – which bodes well for the future of the English game.

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