As the inaugural FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival™ rolls on from qualification into the tournament stage and most attention is on the pitch, some highly trained eyes are keeping a careful watch and offering support to the players off the field.

The FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival is a new FIFA competition designed to support the long-term development of young players worldwide. The inaugural boys’ edition is open to players born in 2011 or 2012, and with 189 Member Associations (MAs) competing in the tournament, it is by far the largest single-location tournament – in terms of players – that FIFA has ever held, with over 2,500 players competing in Azerbaijan.

While there is no doubt that some future stars of tomorrow are competing at the tournament, there is also the possibility that many will never turn professional, so the competition needs to be about more than simply football.

Through FIFA’s Safeguarding Policy and FIFA Guardians™ programme, this tournament includes a focus on joy, education and a great life experience for the players – all within a safe environment supported by the work that FIFA does in this space.

“Safeguarding’s really important to make sure that the players are safe throughout. The tournament’s inclusive; we’ve got different cultures, different languages, different legislation that people would abide by normally,” said Gary Bye, FIFA Senior Event Safeguarding Manager.

An important – and unique – aspect of this tournament is to allow the children to be children. With the external focus being the action on the pitch, it is important to remember that the players are young and need to be given the opportunity to express themselves off the pitch in an age-appropriate manner.”

The Safeguarding team, led by Mr Bye, have set up a recreation zone which allows the players to do exactly that: have fun as children.

“These are all children and the whole idea is to release that pressure and make sure they have a great experience whilst they’re with us. We just let them play, and we talk about developing the person and then coaching the player,” he continued.

“We recently had a session in the recreation zone with three different teams from across the globe, two from Africa and one from Europe, and they were making paper planes and it became a big competition.

“But then, at the end they’re all singing and dancing together: a real party atmosphere and something that you never get in school. A unique experience and just great to behold and great to watch and see these kids actually interacting together.”

Player education and development also play a key role in what the Safeguarding team are trying to achieve.

“To bring them all into one place has been a real challenge, but you can see from the village, the kids are really enjoying it, they’re interacting. We know that some of these players won’t go on and play at a professional level, but they’re still on a high-performance programme within their Member Associations.

The Learning Corner concept is based around the players of the future and is accessible to all youngsters at the tournament to engage with, across four modules.

The modules are highly recommended, but not mandatory, with players able to explore topics such as internet safety, which includes utilising the FIFA Social Media Protection Service, and being their best self in the tournament which explores the concepts of fair play and sporting behaviour throughout their career. The technical development department also delivers two modules centred around player development and their journey into the professional game.

The FIFA Guardians programme provides a framework to help FIFA’s 211 MAs prevent any risk of harm to children in football and respond appropriately, as called for in Article 3 of the FIFA Statutes and in line with Article 24 of the FIFA Code of Ethics.

“Every team has to have a safeguarding officer that’s travelled with them,” said Mr Bye. “Some of them are our FIFA Guardians that have qualified through our FIFA diploma and it’s great to see them come here and put that learning into practical application and making sure that their players are safe whilst they’re here with us.”

Kripa Sharma is a Safeguarding and Welfare Officer with the Nepal team and also a certified FIFA Guardian, and earlier this year became the first All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) representative to graduate from FIFA's Diploma in Child Safeguarding.

“FIFA asked for a nominated FIFA guardian, so I was a part of the programme: I did the courses, all my learnings came from that course and then, in my capacity, I took it home and then did it,” she explained.

“Programmes like this are start to end, not just introducing this programme, but also getting the mechanism and the checks in place. That helps the entire thing to go how it should go and with all this education that we received, we know what to do when anything happens.”

Sharma is also in the perfect position to observe firsthand the impact and opportunity the FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival has had on the players in her team, many of whom are travelling abroad for the first time.

The experience of travelling overseas, obtaining their first passport and playing against different styles of opposition will benefit their football, but notably it will also create enduring memories and life experiences that the players will hold onto forever.

“Our country is beautiful but it's small. We don't see this big sky so it's always fascinating – even for me! The players were counting rockets in the sky and they don't even know it's aeroplanes. I can identify well with their experience because I had the same experience when I first saw it.”