SAFF’s ‘Kick Off’ series champions child safeguarding in South Asia

Dhaka: The South Asian Football Federation (SAFF), in collaboration with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC)’s Dream Asia Foundation, recently launched a 2D animated series, Kick Off, to educate young footballers in South Asia on child safeguarding issues.

Launched in January, the five-part series targets players aged between 11 and 17, and addresses key topics such as physical safety, mental well-being, child abuse prevention, online safety, and inclusivity.

In a quest to establish a safe environment for younger generations to explore their love for the beautiful game, the show follows an innovative strategic framework of "One Skill, One Concern, One Goal," where each episode uses specific football skills as analogies to address challenges both on and off the pitch.

The use of creative titles, such as Bicycle Kick, Nutmeg, Stepover, Park the Bus, and Sweeper Keeper, aimed to capture the interest of the target audience, while the series also features characters representing all seven SAFF member associations, namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, to foster a sense of inclusivity among viewers.

Shared across the SAFF’s Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube channels to maximise audience engagement, Kick Off has reached over 14.8 million people across the South Asian nations and generated more than seven million views since its release.

The resounding success of Kick Off has now ignited interest among the MAs to integrate the series into safeguarding training programmes, with each MA being encouraged to dub and distribute the content locally, ensuring accessibility to wider local audiences.

With child safeguarding forming one of the key pillars of the AFC Dream Asia Foundation, the SAFF’s Kick Off initiative is an excellent demonstration of the Foundation’s overarching theme of “Football Cares”.

To watch the first episode of Kick Off, click here or watch below: