Safe Sports: a qualitative research on the education on anti-social behaviour in the Dutch Sports context

Abstract

Sports is often promoted for its positive impact on people’s physical health, the benefits for mental well-being, and its value to society. Yet, there is also a negative side to sports. In this qualitative-interpretive research, I explore this negative side of sports, which is characterised by integrity violations such as match fixing, doping, and anti-social behaviour, and I aim to examine how educational programs of NOC*NSF prevent integrity violations from happening. This study provides an analysis of how educational programs provided by NOC*NSF on antisocial behaviour contribute to a safe sports climate in the Dutch context. Through interviews, participants observation, and document analysis, the views on anti-social behaviour have been examined, the educational programs have been investigated, and the perceptions of participants on educational programs have been studied. The findings show that the educational programs of NOC*NSF contribute, to a limited extent, to a safe sports climate by raising awareness to create a sense of responsibility for safe sports in non-athlete actors and by providing them with tools and measures to address anti-social behaviour. However, the analysis also illustrates that the contribution to a safe sports climate is limited as anti-social behaviour is defined as ambiguous and subjective, confusing both educational trainers and participants. Above that, the educational programs miss profundity. There is a need from participants for more dialogue, assignments, and cases in which the issue of anti-social behaviour is discussed. Yet, in their educational programs, NOC*NSF avoids sensitive topics, and the underlying values, social norms, and cultural beliefs that form the antecedents of anti-social behaviour are not addressed. As a result, participants do not get enough preventive tools to tackle the causes of anti-social behaviour, which has a detrimental effect on the creation and maintenance of a safe sports climate.