Tuesday evening, 7:30pm. A board meeting at a 220-member football club in suburban Lyon. The president opens an email from the federation: “Reminder — annual safeguarding check mandatory for all staff working with minors.” He turns to the secretary: “What exactly does this mean? What do we have to do?”
This president isn’t negligent. He’s simply overwhelmed. And he’s far from alone.
What the law actually says — in plain language
The law of March 8, 2024, “aimed at strengthening the protection of minors and integrity in sport,” didn’t appear from nowhere. It’s the result of years of legislative work, accelerated by cases of sexual violence in sport that shook France.
The core principle
Every person who supervises minors in a sporting context must undergo an annual safeguarding check (contrôle d’honorabilité). This check verifies that the individual has no convictions or pending charges incompatible with working with children.
Who is covered?
The short answer: nearly everyone in your club.
| Role | Covered? |
|---|---|
| Paid sports educators | Yes — checked via professional card (DDCS) |
| Volunteer sports educators | Yes — checked via federation licence |
| Referees and officials | Yes |
| Club leaders in contact with minors | Yes |
| Regular parent helpers | Yes — if they supervise activities |
| Facility operators | Yes |
In France, approximately 2 million people are subject to these checks.
What gets checked
State services consult two databases:
1. Bulletin n°2 of the criminal record (B2) — which lists criminal convictions, excluding minor offences and certain rehabilitated decisions.
2. FIJAIS (National Automated Judicial File of Sexual or Violent Offenders) — which records individuals convicted of or charged with sexual or violent offences, from age 13 onward.
Critical point: an entry in FIJAIS triggers an automatic coaching ban, even if the conviction has been removed from B2 after six months. This is a safety net designed to leave no gaps.
The numbers that should stop you in your tracks
The safeguarding system isn’t theoretical. It produces concrete results:
- ~1 million volunteers checked by May 31, 2023 — before the 2024 law even strengthened the system
- 907 reports processed by December 31, 2022
- 424 coaching bans issued in the same period
- 130 incapacities notified following volunteer checks
These figures come from the French Ministry of Sports. They mean one simple thing: the system works, and it finds cases. Which also means that clubs who don’t verify are taking a real risk — not a hypothetical one.
Since September 2024, the national safeguarding platform — expanded by the order of July 8, 2024 — enables cross-sector screening of everyone working with minors: sport, child protection, and early childhood care. The result: 1,733 attestations refused for incompatible convictions, in just a few months.
In 2026, the government deployed 100 additional positions in departmental services to accelerate investigations and enforcement. The message is clear: compliance pressure is increasing.
What the club president risks
This is where many volunteer leaders are caught off guard. The March 2024 law doesn’t just impose obligations on coaches. It creates direct sanctions for club leaders in three situations:
- The leader themselves poses a danger to minors
- The leader employs or keeps in position someone who doesn’t meet safeguarding requirements
- The leader fails to report at-risk behaviour they’re aware of to state services
In all three cases, the leader can face a temporary or permanent ban from holding a sports leadership role.
And it goes further: violating this ban carries a penalty of 1 year imprisonment and a €15,000 fine.
Read that again. One year in prison and fifteen thousand euros. For a volunteer giving their free time to a local club. Not because they committed an offence, but because they didn’t check — or didn’t report.
The practical problem: how do you actually verify?
The automated system (SI Honorabilité) works through sports federations. In theory, the process runs like this:
- The club collects identity information from each staff member during licence registration
- The federation transmits the data to state services
- The state performs the check (B2 + FIJAIS)
- If there’s a problem, the prefect notifies an incapacity to coach
In theory, it’s smooth. In practice, the club still needs to:
- Ensure every coach has a valid licence — including occasional volunteers who “help out” at training sessions
- Track certificates — know who’s been checked, who hasn’t, whose licence has expired
- React immediately to any incapacity notification — remove the person from all activities involving minors
- Keep records of all verifications — if inspected, the club must prove it did its due diligence
- Proactively report any concerning behaviour observed, even without a conviction
For a 50-member club with 5 coaches, this is manageable. For a multi-sport club with 400 members and 30 educators, referees, helpers, and board members? It’s an administrative nightmare.
What well-prepared clubs are doing
The best-organised clubs don’t just wait for the federation check. They put in place systematic internal tracking.
A centralised register
A document (or better, a tool) that lists every staff member with:
- Date of last verification
- Check status (pending, compliant, non-compliant)
- Licence expiry date
- Qualifications (diplomas, first aid, etc.)
Automated reminders
When a licence approaches expiry, the coach receives a reminder. Not a text message sent by the secretary on Sunday evening — an automatic, traceable reminder.
Automatic blocking for non-compliance
If a coach isn’t up to date — expired licence, pending check, missing qualification — they can’t be assigned to a training slot or match involving minors. Not out of malice. Out of legal responsibility.
Structured reporting
The law requires club leaders to report at-risk behaviour to state services. Federations must themselves immediately inform the Minister of Sports. A well-equipped club has a clear process: who reports, how, to whom, with what follow-up.
Why spreadsheets are no longer enough
If you’ve read our article on why clubs should ditch Excel, you see the connection. Safeguarding tracking is exactly the kind of task where a spreadsheet becomes dangerous:
- No automated reminders — you have to remember to check manually each month
- No blocking — nothing prevents assigning a non-compliant coach to a training session
- No audit trail — if inspected, you can’t prove when or by whom the check was performed
- No structured reporting — no workflow, no follow-up
The day an incident occurs — and statistically, with 424 bans issued in a recent period, incidents do happen — the question won’t be “did the club have Excel?” but “did the club have a reliable system to protect its young members?”
What Paak changes
Paak integrates safeguarding tracking directly into daily club management:
- Compliance dashboard — real-time view of every coach’s status
- Automatic reminders — emails sent automatically when a qualification approaches expiry
- Smart blocking — a non-compliant coach can’t be assigned to sessions with minors
- Complete history — every check is timestamped and traceable
- GDPR compliant — data hosted in France, European digital sovereignty
This isn’t a luxury. It’s the minimum for a club leader who wants to sleep at night.
Time to act
The March 8, 2024 law isn’t a future regulation. It’s in force. Checks are active. Sanctions are real. And the government has made clear it’s strengthening enforcement.
Since June 2025, the enforcement framework is complete. Decree 2025-511 of June 10, 2025 now empowers prefects to issue bans against sports facility operators who fail to meet their obligations (Article L.322-3 of the Sports Code). Administrative sanctions against leaders who employ non-compliant staff or fail to report at-risk behaviour are now fully operational.
If you’re the president, treasurer, or secretary of a sports club, ask yourself three questions:
- Do I know the safeguarding status of every coach and volunteer in my club?
- Do I have a system that alerts me when someone isn’t compliant?
- Can I prove, if inspected, that I did everything required?
If the answer to any of these is “no” or “I’m not sure,” it’s time to act. Not just because it’s the law — even though it is. But because behind every safeguarding check, there’s a child who deserves to be protected.
Protecting the young people in your club shouldn’t take 2 hours. It should take 2 clicks.
Read more:
- Excel is killing your club (and no one dares say it) — the true cost of spreadsheets
- Digital sovereignty: why it matters for your club — data hosted in Europe
- Why CRM is no longer a luxury for sports clubs — centralise to manage better
Paak is a management platform for sports clubs, designed to automate compliance and protect your volunteers. 100% European. paak.club