LALIGA and autonomous communities launch a joint plan to prevent and act against school bullying

Coinciding with the World Day Against Violence and Bullying at School, held this Thursday, LALIGA has announced its collaboration with the autonomous communities to fight this scourge and with the General Council of Psychology of Spain as a key ally. This initiative is framed within LALIGA's joint work project through its platform LALIGA VS with regional governments, thanks to which a permanent working group has been established that meets biannually.

This working group is focused on the prevention and eradication of hate in sports, with a strong emphasis on the fight against school bullying, and the implementation of joint awareness and training actions across all territories. The actions to be undertaken were announced in an event held at LALIGA’s headquarters in Madrid, attended by Javier Tebas, president of LALIGA; Mariano de Paco, Councillor of Culture, Tourism and Sports of the Community of Madrid; Patricia del Pozo, Councillor of Culture and Sports of the Junta of Andalusia; and Rebeca Esnaola, Councillor of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of Navarra; along with José Antonio Luengo, First Vice President of the General Council of Psychology of Spain; Carolina Marín; and Mario Suárez, LALIGA ambassador.

With the help of Olympic and world champion Carolina Marín, LALIGA has produced a video that will serve as a pedagogical tool in schools explaining the different ways bullying can manifest and the importance of standing up to it. In addition, it features the participation of Diego Pablo Simeone and players from LALIGA EA SPORTS: Javier Puado (RCD Espanyol de Barcelona), Nico González (Atlético de Madrid), Antony (Real Betis Balompié), José Gayá (Valencia CF), Mikel Oyarzabal and Álex Remiro (Real Sociedad), Bambo Diaby (Elche CF), Nacho Vidal (Real Oviedo), Mario Suárez (former Rayo Vallecano player), and Iván Rakitić (former Sevilla FC player). Furthermore, LALIGA will work alongside the autonomous communities to organize training workshops for sports coordinators, responsible officials of school sports competitions, coaches, referees, and others.

 

LALIGA’s commitment to fighting hate

 

These initiatives fall under LALIGA VS, the platform of LALIGA and its clubs aimed at eradicating hate inside and outside stadiums by promoting a respectful and inclusive society. LALIGA VS Bullying is one of the platform's projects, aiming to fight school bullying by appealing to football's fundamental values: team spirit, unity, collective strength and sportsmanship, as it urges children not to be passive observers of bullying, but to unite and confront the problem.

Among other initiatives stands the educational project Futura Afición, launched by LALIGA through its Foundation that promotes positive values of sport and non-violence among boys and girls. In its more than 10 years history, the program, aimed at schools and youth categories of LALIGA clubs, has reached 96,000 students in 900 educational centers. Also, for the past two seasons, Futura Afición has focused on fighting bullying by creating educational materials and holding awareness workshops. As a novelty, this school year the LALIGA FOUNDATION, together with AEPAE (Spanish Association for the Prevention of School Bullying), will create a prevention manual and an action protocol for sports environments to provide sports entities with the necessary tools to act in bullying situations.