British MPs want whistle-blowers’ voices heard

Sports bodies are “massively lacking” when it comes to addressing the concerns of whistle-blowers, says a lawmaker who helped expose failings at the Football Association and within British cycling.

Damian Collins, chairman of the Commons digital, culture, media and sports parliamentary committee, said that people often find it necessary to go outside their sport to get their voices heard.

Collins’s committee recently delved into racism and bullying allegations made by England women’s international soccer player Eni Aluko against her then manager Mark Sampson during a wide-ranging probe into sport governance.

During an embarrassing grilling, MPs pulled apart the Football Association’s handling of the allegations that preceded Sampson’s dismissal in September, which was related to a historic safeguarding investigation into his conduct while in a previous job.

“Eni Aluko makes damaging allegations and the FA fail to set up a proper investigation,” Collins told reporter.

“Even their internal one, they closed it down before they conducted a proper investigation.

“It is hardly surprising Aluko didn’t think it was satisfying nor indeed the lawyer brought in to conduct another investigation.

“It took a parliamentary committee to expose this and make the FA confront the fact that they don’t have a whistle-blower policy or proper set- up to confront these allegations.”

Speaking to AFP at his Westminster office, Collins said the job of the committee is not to investigate individual cases but to ask whether sporting bodies are doing what they can to protect and look after whistleblowers and to investigate and act on their concerns.

“We have found they are massively lacking,” he said. “People are becoming so frustrated they don’t feel safe pursuing their complaints. They don’t know who to go to and if they do they aren’t properly investigated.”