TacticConnect
​News & Views

In recent years, maternity support in elite sport has shifted from an overlooked issue to a central focus of policy development. Major initiatives such as the WTA Maternity Fund, introduced in 2025, and AC Milan’s groundbreaking policy in August 2024, which guarantees automatic one-year contract renewals for players who become pregnant in the final year of their contract, highlight a growing recognition of the need to better support athlete mothers.

Safeguarding should be visible in everyday behaviours, decision making and interactions, not just referenced when something goes wrong. Historically, a safeguarding policy has been seen as the final step in sports safeguarding, with many organisations still taking this view. However, for effective safeguarding, a policy has to be seen as just the first step.

Sport isn’t one big system; it is a series of small communities, each with its own needs, goals, visions and missions. Sport spans commercial, charitable, community and cultural interests that range from simply enabling people to be more physically active to being an international winner at an elite level. There are all the associated support networks and peripheral industries that are interconnected to empower the individuals, teams and groups playing and participating in th