The Player Activism Award is for a player who campaigns to bring about political or social change through advocacy for a cause.
What she did:
Javiera is working to eradicate sexual abuse, harassment, discrimination and mistreatment from women’s football. The captain of Universidad Católica in Chile has led the development and implementation of the “Protocol Against Harassment, Sexual Abuse, Mistreatment and other forms of Discrimination in Chilean women's football” a specific protection framework for women in football, which can be replicated for other male-dominated sports.
She also collaborated in the elaboration of Chile´s National Sports Protocol for Harassment and Abuse in Sports with the Chilean government and inspired other Latin American player unions to copy this protocol, which means a huge improvement for the protection of players in various countries.
Moreno also coordinated protection and support for victims in cases of sexual and workplace harassment and abuse during 2019 and 2020.
The winners of the FIFPRO Merit Awards were picked by a selection committee, consisting of former Merit Award winner Haley Carter, Global Player Council member Gabriella Garton, and union representatives from all FIFPRO Divisions (Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe). The committee said it was impressed with the achievements of all eight nominees for the Merit Awards.
What the jury said:
With her activism, Javiera raised awareness about the degrading behaviour towards sportswomen in Chile, female football players in particular. This is an exceptional case, which will have a lot of impact in societies throughout Latin America. She fought for vulnerable and marginalized persons, and is trying to address and eradicate a very serious issue in a challenging social context.
