Football's not coming home.. but he is

The World Cup can be an exciting time for football fans across the world. But for those living with domestic violence, it can be a particularly difficult time.

With studies showing that domestic violence incidents increase by a shocking 38% whenever England lose a football match, any major tournament for many brings with it the fear of what might happen if (or in this case when) a team loses a game.

What may come as even more of a shock is that this abuse can be seen to rise even when we win. Meaning many victims find themselves in increased danger during tournaments, no matter the circumstances.

While a lot of people were aware of the increases in domestic abuse cases during major football events, up to now it was not something that could be seen being publicly spoken about. This year, however, national domestic abuse charity Women's Aid decided to change that.

Going public just a few days after the 2022 World Cup kicked off, Women's Aid launched a country wide campaign that aims to raise awareness and fight domestic abuse, particularly that which is related to football.

The campaign ad is incredibly powerful, yet very simple, and encourages World Cup supporters to not only support the sport but also the 1.6 million people living with domestic abuse.

Take a look at the ad for yourself:

As we pass the three week mark of the World Cup in Qatar, it has been interesting to see the action being taken by Women's Aid to continue this campaign across their social media platforms.

On Twitter, we saw the charity post both before a match - reminding supporters of the dangers that arise from football tournaments - and after a match, where they would again remind supporters that while many people may be celebrating, many women and children would find themselves fearing for their safety.

Each tweet was also seen to feature the campaign ad in some capacity.

The campaign received a lot of positive feedback from other activists and professionals, with many claiming they had never seen a campaign about this subject as good as this Women's Aid campaign.

Not only this, the campaign having been cleverly launched just in time for the "16 Days of Activism" - an international UN campaign against gender-based violence - it was interesting to see the further campaigns of support that were launched off the back of this one.

For example, TSB launched an emergency "flee fund" that would be being made available to domestic abuse survivors attempting to leave their violent circumstances. While TSB and Women's Aid also launched a pilot scheme aimed at giving victims financial freedom by safely opening a bank account.

Something even more deeply important to the success of this campaign, however, was the number of people who took it upon themselves to spread awareness of the He's Coming Home campaign, and of the domestic violence statistics associated with major footballing events.

This was particularly evident on December 10th, after England's 2-1 defeat by France. With the team officially out of the World Cup, for many it was likely to hit home in more ways than one.

Thousands of people were seen to use the hashtag #HesComingHome on Twitter on the day of England's last match of the 2022 World Cup, with those numbers only further increasing across other social media platforms. Proving that the Women's Aid campaign had gained the success it likely had hoped for upon its launch.

Overall, this campaign ticked so many boxes in terms of a successful campaign. And, while a particularly harrowing topic, the statistics clearly show it was something very necessary to raise awareness of.

We can only hope that campaigns such as this one are able to do even further good, hopefully by way of decreasing the horrific statistics attached to football-related violence. And it is clear to see that other professionals can definitely take a few pointers from the way Women's Aid approached this crucial campaign.

If you have been effected by any of the topics discussed in this post, please visit womensaid.org.uk or call the National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247 if you feel safe enough to do so.

Chloe Rose