FA’s abuse probe must answer questions over 60-70 banned coaches
THE Football Association’s handling of historical sexual abuse in the game will involve ‘serious questions’ about 250 cases of alleged abuse ‘ongoing’ as recently as 2005, and the specific circumstances in which 60 to 70 coaches were banned from the game by the FA between 2001 and 2005.
The cases were cited in a government-backed Independent Football Commission (IFC) report in 2005, the same year that Tony Pickerin, then the FA’s head of child protection, specified the number of banned coaches after ‘serious referrals’.
‘There are probably about six to 10 cases a week where criminal record checks show that a person has committed an offence that could represent a threat to children,’ said Pickerin at the time. ‘Our duty is that the children’s safety be paramount.’
Pickerin is now retired and has not responded to attempts to contact him.
The FA says it acted upon the 2005 IFC report by implementing 23 recommendations, including a mandatory, paid child protection officer at every county FA in the country. It is widely accepted that young players are now better protected than ever. But there remain concerns about how victims of abuse were historically treated — and what happened to those accused but not necessarily ever prosecuted for abuse.
The FA has instructed Kate Gallafent QC to review historical abuse cases and assess whether the FA acted properly.
Professor Derek Fraser, the lead author of the 2005 report, has told the Mail on Sunday that his report was informed by information passed to relevant bodies, but he had no access to details about any specific abuse cases. He said it was not possible, therefore, for him to know in 2005 how many of the ‘ongoing’ abuse cases involved sexual abuse and how many were ‘only’ bullying cases. Nor did the FA provide Fraser with specific information about cases that led to 60 or 70 coaches being kicked out of the game. He told the IMoS he has no reason to dispute Pickerin’s contemporary version of events that those coaches were kicked out after ‘serious’ cases.
It remains unknown what happened to those coaches, and whether or how they might have been prevented from working with children in any other capacity later, if they were. These are issues the FA is likely to review now.