Why You Can Trust NextplAI

I'm a parent myself, and I wouldn't expect anybody to do that without understanding who's behind the platform, how it works and what happens to their child's information.

Safeguarding isn't an afterthought at NextplAI. It's part of everything we're trying to build.

My background and safeguarding responsibilities

Alongside my 20 years of football coaching experience, I hold current FA DBS clearance for my coaching roles and am registered with the DBS Update Service, allowing eligible organisations to check the status of my certificate with the appropriate consent.

I understand the responsibility that comes with working around children, vulnerable people and sensitive environments, and I take that responsibility extremely seriously.

Every report is checked by a real coach

During our current beta programme, artificial intelligence helps analyse submitted football videos and prepare feedback.

However, no AI-generated feedback is sent directly to a child without first being reviewed by a human coach.

Children do not have unsupervised conversations with an AI system.

AI supports the process. A real coach remains responsible for reviewing the feedback.

We only ask for the information we need

We don't want to build detailed personal profiles of children. When creating a player profile, we ask for very little:

• Player name: This can be a first name, nickname or made-up name. It's simply there so the feedback can speak directly to the player in a friendly, personal way.
• Age bracket: This helps us make sure the language, explanations and coaching advice are appropriate for the child's stage of development.

We don't need a child's full name, home address, school or date of birth.

For parents or guardians, we ask for a name and email address so we can manage the account, send report notifications, communicate about submissions and request feedback during beta testing.

We want the experience to be personal without collecting unnecessary personal information.

What happens to your videos?

Videos are submitted for the purpose of analysing a football action and answering the player's question.

Once the analysis and human review process has been completed, the video enters our automatic deletion process. Videos are normally removed promptly after processing, although deletion can take up to 48 hours, depending on the system's deletion cycle.

We don't want to keep children's videos longer than necessary for the service being provided.

Recording safely and respecting others

We also ask parents, guardians and coaches to think carefully about what appears in any video before uploading it.

For individual practice sessions, please check that nobody else appears in the background without appropriate permission.

For team training sessions or matches, make sure recording and sharing the footage complies with your club's safeguarding policies and that the appropriate permissions and consents are in place for everyone identifiable in the video.

Clubs should have clear procedures covering photography, video recording and the safeguarding of young players. If you're unsure what your club's policy is, please ask your coach or club safeguarding officer.

Sometimes, simply asking that question can help improve awareness and safeguarding practices across grassroots football.

A safe environment to learn and grow

Over my years in coaching, I've learned that children don't all arrive at football with the same experiences, confidence or circumstances. Some have tremendous support around them. Others may be dealing with challenges that aren't immediately obvious.

Every child deserves to feel safe, respected and supported. That's as important to me as anything they'll ever learn about passing, shooting or decision-making.

We want NextplAI to be an environment where young players can ask questions without embarrassment, make mistakes without fear of criticism and develop the confidence to take ownership of their learning.