Psychological, physical and sexual violence is a problem – even in sport. Clubs must offer their athletes a safe environment. That’s why they need a protection concept that states how they should proceed in such cases. An interactive one On-lineprogram of the State Sports Association of North Rhine-Westphalia, the protection concept generator, is intended to support clubs in this.
“Good luck in creating your protection concept”says the first explanatory video for the interactive online program. Erik Huber, Kim Lebowski and Fatima Bentahan smile. The three from Deutzer TV in Cologne train the club’s children’s and youth teams in basketball, among other things. Now you sit in front of the screen and get an initial overview of the protection concept generator.
Approach the topic in a practical way
“This is an online program that supports clubs in developing their own protection concept”explains Gitte Axmann, the sports scientist and expert advisor in the area of protection against violence, who helped develop the program. The aim is to introduce the clubs to this topic as practically as possible, she explains.
How important this is is shown by the cases in which athletes publicly describe that they were shouted at, insulted and humiliated while playing sports. They report everything from sexist comments to serious sexual assaults. Studies show – it happens in competitive and popular sports.
Andrea Schültke, sports show, November 4th, 2025 3:03 p.m
Gitta Axmann worked on these studies at the Cologne Sports University. A protection concept is as important as fire protection or first aid rules, she says. In such a protection concept, clubs should record their answers to these questions: How do I proceed if physical, psychological or sexual violence is suspected? What do I have to consider? How do I protect myself? Who can be contacted within the club and who outside?
Five major subject areas
The trio from the basketball department of Deutzer TV clicks through the program with five major topic areas. From “general club characteristics” to “positioning of the board”, “risk analysis”, “prevention” and “intervention”.
For each block there is an explanatory video, questions that can be answered and notes that can be entered directly online. The end result should be a protection concept tailored to your club. “How do you best work on this block? Be open and honest. Use the guiding questions and document carefully”it says something at the end of the first video about the general club features.
“I think it’s right, it’s good that you have another video at the beginning and not just these queries”says Kim Lebowski. The youth coordinator at Deutzer TV is happy about this support program because her club offers positions for a voluntary social year. The State Sports Association of North Rhine-Westphalia stipulates that these clubs must have a protection concept in place by next summer.
The project should have a signaling effect
Most sports clubs are run on a voluntary basis. “And that’s exactly where we often notice that there’s a problem, whether it’s time-related or financial.”says Christin Görtler, speaker on the topic of “protection against violence” at the State Sports Association of North Rhine-Westphalia. Here the LSB tries to support the clubs on the major issue of violence prevention with a wide range of offerings.
“We have a comprehensive training and consulting concept, a workbook and a guide”explains Görtler, “and now just this Online tool Protection concept generator.” It’s been online for four weeks. According to Görtler, there are already inquiries from state sports associations in other federal states and also from specialist associations that are interested in the project.
“The project should have a signaling effect beyond North Rhine-Westphalia”says Jan Holze, board member of the German Foundation for Commitment and Volunteering. This federally funded foundation supported the protection concept generator project with almost a quarter of a million euros: “Because it has the potential to not only reach the 87,000 sports clubs in Germany, but it is a topic that can radiate beyond sport and is ultimately relevant and useful for all volunteer structures.”says Holze. During his time as honorary chairman of the German Sports Youth, dsj, organized sports had just begun to deal with the issue of sexual violence in sports.
Risk analysis as a core element
A core element of the program is risk analysis. The Deutzer TV team now sees a large, colorful hidden object picture on the screen with numerous situations in sports that potentially offer opportunities for attacks. If the cursor moves to one of these situations, an explanation will now appear on the screen.
Example: changing room. This is about the clubs determining how this should work for them, explains Gitta Axmann from the Sports University in Cologne: “We knock and say we’ll come in straight away and wait for the answer from inside. Okay, now you can come in because then everyone has had the chance to put something on.”
The three from Deutzer TV discuss how their changing room situation is handled. Although there are many changing rooms “It often happens that the kids want to change quickly in the equipment room before training”. The online program is intended to raise awareness of situations like this. Then the team should write down how they want to handle this situation in the future. When all the building blocks have been worked through and all the notes have been entered, says Christin Görtler from LSB NRW, the end result should be a protection concept tailored to the club. “You should then have a finished product in your hand”says Görtler.
Until then, the three-person team from Deutzer TV still has a lot of work to do. They are now realizing that they can’t get any further without the club’s board of directors. “An hour and a half isn’t enough”notes Fatima Bentahan. The basketball coach should be the project manager in the club Safe sports become. After clicking through the program for the first time, it becomes clear: you still have to collect a lot of information, involve all areas in the club and, above all, the board of directors must work intensively on the concept. “And the crucial thing will be how we deal with it in practice in the end.“