Welfare Officers in Youth Football

[BadPanda]

My 9 year old DS has had some issues with the coach at his football club.
When I asked to speak to the Welfare Officer, it turns out that she is in fact the coaches mother.
I have checked with our local FA and apparently there are no rules against this - they told me that in some clubs the coach also doubles as the Welfare Officer themselves.
Now, given that the Welfare Officer is the person who heads up safeguarding and is supposed to be someone that a child feels comfortable confiding in/disclosing any issues to, doesn't this seem a bit inappropriate?
Given the current scandal in the news and all the assurances that children's sport is now safer than ever, I'm pretty shocked that this kind of 'conflict of interest' is allowed.
I've been given the name of someone higher up the chain in the FA to contact and I was hoping I could gauge some opinions first.

It's certainly not ideal. But, as with all these volunteer things, a paucity of volunteers may have made it necessary - its a requirement to have a WO now so I guess the club decided it was better to have her than no-one.

Given that the committee of youth football teams are usually the team coaches, a chair, a treasurer and a secretary it is quite usual for the Welfare Officer to be one of the coaches or assistant coaches.

Is it really a "welfare officer" issue or are you complaining that he isn't being played enough or that type of issue?

As a previous chair if you feel comfortable saying what the issue is here or by PM I may be able to help.

Welfare officer, in our case is the chairman of the football club, previously was a wife of a coach. As pp has said it's a voluntary role. What sort of issues?