The politics of enacting care in rugby league and football: Exploring the perspectives of player care and welfare officers

Recent efforts to promote help-seeking amongst high-level athletes has resulted in the introduction of a variety of roles (e.g. player care officers in English football) responsible for the provision of athlete care. However, the enactment of care is compromised by the stigmatisation attached to help-seeking, the wide range of welfare issues faced by athletes, and the socio-political dynamics of the sporting workplace. In light of these challenges, the current study interviewed welfare and care officers working in rugby league and football, respectively, to explore the strategies employed by these practitioners as they seek to enact care. Using Nodding’s theory of care and Kelchtermans and Ballet work on micro-politics as our theoretical lens, findings revealed that welfare/care officers sought to normalise help-seeking and to ensure that the responsibility for care was distributed amongst support staff. Practitioners develop a micropolitical sensibility that enables them to create the working conditions they consider crucial in fulfilling their roles and meeting the needs of their athletes.