FIFA Guardians Safeguarding Essentials Course 1 practice questions

Five sample questions from the Study material, with the answers and explanations shown. The quiz bank holds all 135 questions on this document.

These five questions show how the quiz bank tests the FIFA Guardians Safeguarding Essentials Course 1. The quiz bank holds all 135 questions on this document, with scoring, timed papers and the exam simulator.

1. Ingvild Tharaldsen, the welfare lead of a Norwegian amateur club, asks two people to take the FIFA Guardians Safeguarding Essentials course: Tomasz Wrzosek, a Polish football agent who represents several of the club’s youth players, and Fanta Djiré, who works unpaid as the club’s physiotherapist. The club secretary objects that the course is meant for safeguarding officers. Which of the following statements are correct?

The course is aimed at people who hold a safeguarding officer role, so Tomasz and Fanta fall outside the audience it was designed for.
Tomasz falls within the course’s intended audience, because FIFA Guardians Safeguarding Essentials names agents among the roles it is designed to support. (Introduction: Who is this course for?, study pack p. 392) Correct
Fanta falls within the course’s intended audience, because the course covers voluntary as well as paid roles and names physiotherapists among them. (Introduction: Who is this course for?, study pack p. 392) Correct
Fanta falls outside the course’s intended audience, because the course is designed for the paid staff of FIFA, national associations and clubs.

Introduction, section “Who is this course for?” (p. 392): the course supports people involved in football in a voluntary or paid role, for FIFA, a national association or a club, or as a safeguarding officer, coach, manager, agent, referee, academy director, physiotherapist or medic. B is right because agents are named. C is right because voluntary roles are covered and physiotherapists are named. A is wrong: safeguarding officers are only one of many roles listed. D is wrong: the course is not limited to paid staff.

2. Which of the following are learning outcomes that the FIFA Guardians Safeguarding Essentials course sets for its learners?

A learner will be able to describe what is meant by safeguarding in football. (Introduction: Learning outcomes, study pack p. 393) Correct
A learner will be able to investigate allegations of abuse made against coaches and other staff in their own organisation.
A learner will be able to decide whether abuse has in fact taken place before passing a concern on to the authorities.
A learner will be able to recognise safeguarding risks in football and how they can help to reduce them. (Introduction: Learning outcomes, study pack p. 393) Correct

Introduction, section “Learning outcomes” (p. 393): outcome 1 is to describe what is meant by safeguarding in football, and outcome 2 is to recognise safeguarding risks in football and how you can help to reduce them, so A and D are right. B is wrong: Part 3 (p. 434) says investigating allegations of abuse is the responsibility of the authorities and trained professionals. C is wrong for the same reason: the course asks learners to report concerns, not to decide whether abuse took place.

3. Hollin Park FC, a Scottish club, runs boys’ and girls’ youth teams and an adult women’s team. Its board adopts a safeguarding plan that covers only the youth teams, because, in the chair’s words, the adult players “can look after themselves”. The club’s welfare officer, Mairead Tolland, disagrees. Which of the following statements are correct?

The adult women’s team belongs within the plan, because FIFA Guardians Safeguarding Essentials states that everyone has the right to play football in a safe and supportive environment. (Part 1: Getting started, study pack pp. 395-409) Correct
The adult women’s team can stay outside the plan, because FIFA Guardians Safeguarding Essentials gives the right to a safe and supportive environment to children alone.
The club is right to give its youth teams particular attention, because the course says that the right to play in a safe environment applies especially to children. (Part 1: Getting started, study pack pp. 395-409) Correct
The club should give its youth and adult teams exactly the same attention, because the course gives children’s safety no particular emphasis over that of adults.

Part 1, section “Getting started” (p. 395) and the Part 1 main messages (p. 409): everyone has the right to play football in a safe and supportive environment, “especially children”. A is right because the right belongs to everyone, adult players included, and B is wrong for the same reason. C is right because the course places particular emphasis on children. D is wrong because the words “especially children” give children that emphasis.

4. Mereana Tautahi chairs Kaituna Rovers, a New Zealand club with 300 junior players. No safeguarding incident has been reported at the club in ten years. At a committee meeting she proposes to postpone the club’s safeguarding work, saying that safeguarding is for when something goes wrong. Which of the following statements is correct?

Mereana is right, because safeguarding work begins when a concern is first reported and there is nothing for the club to act on before then.
The club still has safeguarding work to do, because the course describes safeguarding as the things done to prevent harm or abuse from happening. (Part 1: What is safeguarding?, study pack pp. 396-397) Correct
The club has safeguarding work to do only if its national association or its insurer requires a written safeguarding policy from it.
The club has no safeguarding work to do yet, because the course describes safeguarding as the things done once harm or abuse has happened.

Part 1, section “What is safeguarding?” (p. 397): safeguarding means the things we do to minimise risk, doing everything possible to prevent any kind of harm or abuse from happening. It is preventive, so B is right. A and D are wrong because safeguarding does not wait for a concern or for harm; the steps taken once there are concerns are what the course calls the response. C is wrong because the course makes safeguarding part of everyone’s role, not a response to an outside requirement.

5. Teodor Vasile, a Romanian referee, arrives to officiate an under-12 match and finds that one of the portable goals is not anchored to the ground. The home club’s organiser has gone home. Teodor tells a parent that pitch safety is the organiser’s job or the safeguarding officer’s, and prepares to start the match. Which of the following statements is correct?

Teodor may start the match, because the course places the duty to deliver an activity safely on the person who organises it.
Teodor does not share the duty to make sure the match is delivered safely, because the course gives that duty to the safeguarding officer.
Teodor has no safeguarding role at the match, because the course is concerned with coaches and staff who work with children each week.
Teodor shares the duty to make sure the match is delivered safely, because the course gives that duty to everyone in football. (Part 1: What is safeguarding?, study pack p. 397) Correct

Part 1, section “What is safeguarding?” (p. 397): everyone in football has a duty to make sure activities are delivered as safely as possible, and this is part of our safeguarding responsibility. D is right. A and B are wrong because the duty is not confined to the organiser or to the safeguarding officer. C is wrong because the course names referees among those it is designed for (p. 392) and gives the duty to everyone in football.

Answers are taken from the official FIFA study materials. Where a question names an article, you can check it against FIFA's own text: the study materials page links every document.