Gareth Southgate – for using sport’s visibility to address deeper social issues with empathy, authenticity and influence 

No.11: April 2025
Guest author: Rebecca Hopkins  

---

As CEO of The STA Group, Rebecca Hopkins is a sports communications specialist and entrepreneur with over 20 years of international experience in the sector. 

The STA Group is an events and insights business, encompassing global sports brands such as The Sports Technology Awards, The Sports Technology Annual Review, The Sports Technology Power List, and Tech Chairs – a new podcast exploring the relationship between technology and sport. 

A passionate advocate for equality and sustainability in sport, Hopkins has served on the Advisory Boards of Loughborough University’s Business School and the International Sports Technology Association. She has also guest lectured for the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and appeared on numerous news channels as a respected commentator on sports media, technology and business. 

---

In a world where questions of identity, mental health and belonging are shaping the lives of a new generation, the role of sports communicators is evolving. It’s no longer just about post-match interviews or media soundbites – it’s about using sport’s visibility to address deeper social issues. With empathy, authenticity and influence, Gareth Southgate is shifting the narrative, bringing attention to the silent struggles of young men and challenging outdated norms with humility and insight. By stepping beyond the touchline, Southgate shows how sport can offer not just memorable moments, but guidance too. 

It’s strange how things come together. I had exchanged emails with Gareth Southgate a few days before his ‘The Richard Dimbleby Lecture’ was broadcast and while he didn’t share the content, it was clear that he wasn’t about to dissect the 4-4-2 rule for the uninitiated. His lecture was outstanding and made even more poignant when Netflix released the shocking drama, Adolescence, soon after.  

Plenty of people I know have been grappling with the same question for years: what do we do about young men? There was a time when boys had a map. It wasn’t perfect, and it didn’t offer much room for individuality, but it gave them a clear direction: protect, provide, procreate. As society – rightly – expands opportunities and space for women, those old, male roles have been diminished, with not much offered to replace them. 

More and more young men have been left with the questions: “Where do I fit?” “What if I fail?”, “How do I cope?” 

In his lecture, Southgate addressed these three questions with impressive clarity, drawing on his own high-profile experiences. He wasn’t asking for sympathy. He was saying that if we want a society that works better for everyone, we can’t afford to let a generation of boys get lost along the way. He quoted a parent who said it best: “One of the most impactful things we can do to help all women is to help young men.” 

Failure’s Many Faces 

There’s no shortage of evidence that something is not quite right. Young men are now more likely to underperform in education, struggle to find meaningful employment and face serious mental health challenges. Suicide is the leading cause of death for men under 50. That stat alone should stop us in our tracks. 

Netflix’s Adolescence paints the picture in personal terms. It shows a teenage boy navigating identity, pressure, social media and toxic influencers. A well-worn literary theme has been the ‘angry young man’, but Southgate pointed out that it’s more often confusion, isolation, fear of getting things wrong and the missed opportunity to help them learn resilience. 

The society we have created means young people live in tightly controlled physical environments – school rules, helicopter parenting and a low tolerance for risk – while being given huge freedom online. A strange mismatch, especially considering how ill-equipped teenagers are to handle the fallout of digital life. Punishment by social media feels so much bigger and it leaves an indelible online footprint.  

Where are the Role Models? 

One of the more haunting lines from the lecture: “Young men in Britain are more likely to live with a smartphone than live with their father.” Many boys are growing up without daily contact with positive male figures, and often without consistent guidance at all. 

While that absence doesn’t automatically spell disaster, it does create space – and that space gets filled, often by influencers selling performative masculinity or questionable ‘success metrics’ dressed up as advice. We also exist where there’s a culture that equates worth with wealth. Additionally, young men are getting the message that they’re disliked simply for existing. 

That’s a painful, hard backdrop to growing up. In the name of self-preservation, young men are withdrawing from school, from sport, from relationships – and ironically, in doing so, are shunning the very opportunities they need, especially when it comes to developing resilience.  

A Different Kind of Leadership 

What makes Southgate’s voice so effective in this space is that it doesn’t sound like a lecture. He’s not offering easy answers, nor pretending he has all the solutions. He’s asking us to think differently; to stop focusing only on the outcomes and start looking at the environment in which boys exist. 

He talks about the need to normalise failure, not shame it. To remind boys that character outweighs status, and that how you treat people matters more than how much you earn. “Failure,” he says, “is a chapter, not the book.” And that feels like the kind of message that could land – not because it’s flashy, but because it’s real. 

The Right Message at the Right Time 

Naming Gareth Southgate my JTA Communicator of the Month isn’t just about the content of his lecture, it’s about the way he raised the topic and the timing of it. This conversation is needed, and not just among parents of boys. People know something’s off. We see it all around us. 

Simply excusing young men won’t help; they need to be shown, supported and celebrated.  

What Southgate has done is give that vague discomfort a shape and a place to start. Not with blame or binary arguments, but with curiosity, concern and courage. 

Picture credit: Bradley Collyer/PA