Championship club Brighton & Hove Albion are set to instate mandatory law and ethics training regarding sexual consent, following a number of high-profile cases involving both their own players and players from other teams.
The historic new programme, titled Protect, Inform and Prevent (PIP), will include training sessions for both male and female footballers employed by the club, with it set to explain when consent can said to be given according to the law.
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The programme will include individual question and answer sessions carried out by a psychotherapist and former police detective, with players being questioned regarding their previous sexual encounters. The results of these sessions will remain confidential, and rather than seeking to reprimand the players, they are instead intended to inform them of the laws regarding sexual consent.
In 2013, four current and former Brighton players were accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old girl. They were later found not guilty in court, and also cleared of a further charge of voyeurism. Outside of the club, Sheffield’s Ched Evans was found guilty of raping a 19-year-old girl in a hotel room in 2012, while most recently Sunderland winger and former England international Adam Johnson was arrested for allegedly having sex with a 15-year-old girl. Johnson’s case has yet to be brought to court.
The PIP programme is a pioneering step forward for the club, and with the amount of sex scandals that take place within football we hope that it is something other clubs adopt in the near future.
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