Conclusions

In Chapter 8 Van Veldhoven quite clearly articulates the need for policies to be supported by appropriate sport structures and pedagogies that are employed by those who have leadership roles in the youth sport domain. We have seen in this book, for example, how redressing an indirect form of discrimination within the bounds of the UK Equality Act (2010), such as sport-based RAEs, could generate substantial social, health and economic dimensions in the long term for many young people. Certainly, it is not simply the sole responsibility of those involved at the micro levels of youth sport (for example, teachers and coaches) to generate a call to action from the macro (such as the government) and meso (for example, national and/or 209international governing bodies of sport) levels or vice versa. It is a collective responsibility of all these levels to generate both bottom-up and top-down approaches to help sustain sport as a practice. For example, youth sports practitioners need to be ‘walking the talk of ethics in the practice of education’ (Fernández-Balboa 2011: 51) and engage youth in critical thinking so they can live well and treat others with integrity, dignity and respect. Meanwhile, national and/or international governing bodies of sport need to investigate ways to develop and implement community-based sport projects which provide opportunities for young people to gain both internal and external goods, and which adhere to an ethical framework such as the Panathlon Declaration of Ethics in Youth Sport (Panathlon International 2004) and prevent indirect discrimination, such as sport-based RAEs. Finally, government legislators need to ensure that appropriate policies are in place to safeguard and protect children as they engage in sport so that they are not subjected to abuse and other direct forms of discrimination to guarantee that youth sport plays a positive part in the physical, social, moral and ethical growth of young people across the globe.