On the other hand, and independently of the Integrity sessions taught to players, in the specific session format on the responsible use of new technologies intended for player management profiles (coaches, delegates, tutors, doctors, physiotherapists, etc…) an overview of the problem is made, differentiating three levels:
Responsible use – Green phase
Abuse – orange phase
Addiction – red phase
The RFEF knows, through data, the percentage of Spanish society that is in each color of the traffic light and also of the people who are not aware that they are in a certain phase of the traffic light. In this sense, the Integrity area of the RFEF tries to prevent within football that the use of social networks goes from being abuse to being an addiction and to do so, it works with the first hospital unit for the treatment of addiction to new technologies and with the Technological Addiction Care Service (SAAT). In the moment in wich becomes an addiction, the quality of his football is affected and, therefore, it has an impact on his club and the sport.
“In all the talks we look for a point of reflection on what level each person is at and how it affects their performance on the field. We detect cases in which there are no no conversation between a footballer and his physiotherapist during a session of almost an hour. How can it be possible? Because the footballer was on his phone… In this example, the professional treating the player loses information about where the footballer needs to be treated with more priority because the athlete, at that moment, is not focused on his treatment. And so it happens with other processes or activities and this affects his performance and, therefore, distorts football.”comments Felipe Sánchez-Pedreñoresponsible for the Integrity area of the RFEF and who gives more than a hundred talks annually all over the map of Spain.
In each talk the question of what is necessary and what is not necessary to show on a social network is raised. The RFEF has been the first sports entity in Spain to detect the irresponsible use of new technologies and feels the duty to protect the football community because, among other things, it affects something as serious as sporting performance and can become a internal problem. “In the sessions we detected the link between new technologies and this attack on fair play”says Felipe, who emphasizes that this point has a “vital importance when we talk about minors”. Of course, and aside from football, the department is also aware of the impact that everything related to football has on society, so the population benefits from this work of education and ethics.