Soccer Parent is designed with coaches and parents in mind to provide guidance on specific areas that focus on the key issues involved when a child joins a football team.

Tony Pickerin, The FA’s Head of Child Protection, says that as well as being designed to be informative, fun and engaging, one of the key aspects of the Soccer Parent Course is that coaches are given advice to assist in gaining positive contributions from parents as well as understanding issues on specific areas such as child welfare and attitudes.

“The key principle that underpins the policy is that the child’s welfare is paramount,” he points out. “All children have a right to be protected from abuse – regardless of their age, gender, disability, culture, language, racial origin, religious belief or sexual identity.”

Another campaigner for improved sportsmanship in grassroots football is Malcolm Lee, founder of the ‘Don’t X the Line’ campaign.

Malcolm launched his campaign after witnessing increasing levels of abuse and aggression at junior matches. Using a range of innovative methods, he is bringing sportsmanship back into grassroots football and educating parents and junior players that abusive comments or behaviour have no place either on the pitch or the sidelines.

“The response to the campaign has been tremendous. Referees are noticing a difference on the pitch, and when I chat to parents on the sidelines they all make sure that they’re not stepping onto the pitch. It might seem like a trivial detail to some, but it shows they’re getting the message as they are literally not crossing the line,” he explains.

“Our campaign is aimed at stopping any aggression which affects referees personally, and might also affect children and parents in the immediate vicinity. We need to keep hold of these referees by supporting them.”

A new green wristband is now available which could soon be seen at the highest level. “We are trying to get as many people and players as we can to wear them,” Malcolm says, “and are doing our utmost to get footballers in the Premiership to adopt them.”

Having started the campaign on Merseyside – with the backing of more than 150 local team managers – Malcolm is now spreading the scheme nationwide.