For football academies

Visibility is part of becoming a professional. The abuse that comes with it shouldn't be something a young player handles alone.

Fendr keeps hate away from your academy players before it can affect their performance or wellbeing — so your club is always kept in the know.

This isn't just welfare. It's safeguarding.

Premier League, Championship, and European club academies develop players from as young as eight. By the time a player is a teenager, they often have a public Instagram profile, a growing following, and no preparation for what that attracts.

Racial abuse. Targeted harassment after matches or trials. Comments about their appearance or ability from adults with anonymous accounts. For young female academy players, add sexualised abuse. The identity-based targeting can be relentless in ways a teenager is poorly equipped to handle alone.

The stakes are different for young players — the psychological impact during formative years, under enormous performance pressure, is significant. And for players under 18, parents are in the picture: they need to know what's happening, and to trust that any tool used has been built with their child's safety as the primary consideration.

What Fendr does for academies

Fendr protects each academy player's Instagram individually — built around their identity, their age, their specific vulnerability. No player, parent, or academy staff member ever needs to hand over an Instagram login.

Age-appropriate protection

Protection calibrated to the player's age and profile. An eight-year-old's account looks different from a seventeen-year-old's, and the protection adapts accordingly.

No login handover, ever

Players keep their accounts. Parents keep visibility where appropriate. The academy has oversight without access.

Parental involvement built in

For players under 18, parents can be given access to the Fendr dashboard to see what's being caught. Their child's login stays their child's.

Safeguarding-ready audit trail

Every comment Fendr acts on is logged — full records available for safeguarding reviews, welfare reporting, or escalation to the FA, governing bodies, or authorities.

Catches the full range of abuse

Racial slurs, targeted harassment, appearance-based abuse, coordinated campaigns — Fendr understands context, not just keywords.

Academy-level oversight

Welfare leads and safeguarding officers can monitor protection across the cohort without accessing individual accounts.

Why existing tools don't work for academies

They require Instagram login access — and handing over logins shouldn't be a requirement.

They were built for brand accounts, not for protecting minors.

They apply generic content filtering rather than understanding the identity-based abuse young athletes face.

Fendr is built the other way around: individual-first, no login required, safeguarding-ready, identity-aware.

How it works

Up in minutes.

1

Set up your academy account

Covers your full cohort from under-9s to under-21s.

2

Players (and parents) connect their own Instagram

Through Meta's verified integration. Logins stay with the player or parent, never the academy.

3

Fendr builds around each player

Their identity, their specific risk profile. Each player has their own protection.

4

Academy-level safeguarding oversight

Welfare officers and safeguarding leads can monitor the cohort from the academy dashboard.

5

Protection runs automatically

24/7, in the background, before abuse reaches your players.

We had safeguarding frameworks for everything except social media. Fendr filled that gap in a way that parents were actually comfortable with.
Anonymous — academy welfare lead
  • 70% of reported hate speech stays up on Instagram after reporting. (Appeals Centre Europe, 2026)
  • During one coordinated attack on a public figure's account, Fendr removed over 3,500 abusive comments in real time — out of 6,300 total. None of them went live.
FAQ

Questions, answered.

Does anyone have to hand over a player's Instagram login?

No. Players keep their own accounts through Meta's verified integration. The academy has oversight without access, and parents keep visibility where appropriate.

Can parents see what's being caught for their child?

Yes. For players under 18, parents can be given access to the Fendr dashboard to see what's being stopped, while their child's login stays their child's.

Is there a record for safeguarding reviews?

Yes. Every action is logged and reviewable, with full records available for safeguarding reviews, welfare reporting, or escalation to the FA or authorities.

Which platforms does Fendr support?

Instagram today, with TikTok, X, and YouTube on the way.

Cohort pricing, built around your academy.

Book a call and we'll put together a quote based on academy size and the age groups you want to cover.

We'll only use your details to arrange your demo. By submitting you agree to our privacy policy.

Online Abuse Protection for Football Academies — Fendr