Iceland – Social responsibility programmes

Football has a strong voice, and we like to use that strong voice to influence behaviour where we can.

The world of football is still considered masculine. In Iceland, one third of all football players are female, most referees are male and also the majority of coaches, and a large number of employees at local football clubs are male.

‘Women in football’ is a project that aims to get more women to work in or be active in the world of football. When women give up their playing career, they often drop out of the world of football and build a career outside of the game. We want to change that by encouraging women both from the football community as well as from other parts of society to be a part of the football community in some way.

Collaboration with Barnaheill

Our latest addition to the Icelandic FA’s portfolio of social responsibility projects is a collaboration with Barnaheill – Save the Children in Iceland. This is a two-year project which will kick off this coming autumn. The goal is to educate employees and volunteers at every club in Iceland about sexual abuse and sexual harassment aimed at children.

In their early teens, one in ten children is likely to have suffered sexual violence or sexual harassment at some point in their life. We hope to use the strength of football to change this through our collaboration with Barnaheill – Save the Children.

This article originally appeared in UEFA Direct 198