At the end of February, IFK Norrköping's Simon Thern talked about his mental health problems for SVT Sport. Now Swedish elite football wants the work with and against mental ill health in football to be better and therefore Sef has signed an agreement with the Center for Psychiatric Research at the Karolinska Institute.
- Firstly, we have seen that several players have been out and talked about mental illness. Our players and clubs represent the elite, and the results and performance level are obviously very high. We want to develop our football and our clubs, and it is a fantastic opportunity to do this together with the Karolinska Institute, ”Beatrice Clarke, CSR and sustainability manager at Swedish elite football, tells Radio Sports.
It is the clubs in the men's all-Swedish and in the superetta, a total of 32, that are affected by the agreement.
The Karolinska Institute will now formulate a number of questions that are asked to all players, seniors and juniors, sports managers, coaches and other staff in the 32 clubs.
- Then we will link the clubs with the Karolinska Institute and then we will interview. And after that is clear we will get a basis for what methods and what education we need to put on mental ill health, says Beatrice Clarke.