FA’S DAY OF SHAME

++ Sex abuse report slams English football’s governing body for ‘institutional failing’ ++ Lack of action, despite warnings, endangered kids ++ Gradi a ‘potential risk’ to children ++

THE FA has been lambasted in a damning report into child sex abuse within the sport. In what was described as an ‘institutional failing’, the report found that English football’s governing body ‘could have done more to keep children safe’ and said the FA delayed introducing protection measures between 1995 and 2000 which left youngsters at risk.

The FA admitted it was ‘a dark day for the beautiful game’ as they were found to have failed to ban two serial paedophiles in the much-awaited, QC-led review which raises serious questions but falls short of exposing a cover-up.

And in a shocking development the FA — which offered a ‘heartfelt apology’ — confirmed that former Crewe manager Dario Gradi, who brought paedophile Barry Bennell to the club, remained banned from the game because he represented ‘a potential risk to children’.

A number of clubs also came under fire across 700 pages of the independent probe into child sexual abuse in football south of the border between 1970 and 2005. Following reports of abuse from those brave enough to come forward, responses were ‘rarely competent or appropriate’, Clive Sheldon QC found.

The FA was ruled to have overseen an environment where ‘in general, child protection was not regarded as an urgent priority’ following the first convictions of offenders in 1995, in a stark finding that could open the door for compensation claims.

Sheldon, whose report has taken four years and comes a month after the publication of an independent review of sexual abuse in Scottish football, examined the cases of a number of paedophiles, including Bennell, who arrived at Crewe from Manchester City.

He said that after Bennell, now back in prison, was released for previous offences in 2003, the FA ‘should have taken steps to prevent him from involving himself further in football’, adding ‘the failure to do so allowed children to be put at potential risk’.

Sheldon disclosed that senior management at City were aware of rumours over Bennell’s conduct in the early 1980s but did not investigate and ‘should have done so’. He added that City also should have investigated boys staying at Bennell’s house, where many of the attacks took place.

The QC also found that it was ‘likely’ that three Crewe directors discussed ‘concerns about Bennell which hinted at his sexual interest in children’ and there was ‘no evidence’ that advice of a senior police officer to the club’s chairman to keep a ‘watching brief’ on Bennell was heeded.

While there was no evidence Gradi had acted inappropriately, the report included some staggering detail. Sheldon said the 79-year-old explained ‘that he did not consider a person putting their hands down another’s trousers to be an assault’. Sheldon added: ‘I informed him that it was and he then accepted that.’

The QC also referenced sections of a witness statement Bennell gave in a civil proceedings case against the club in 2003, in which Bennell said that the suggestion that nobody at the club ‘knew or suspected that sexual abuse was being perpetrated is ridiculous’.

He added: ‘I cannot imagine why I was not told to stop in view of the complaints made. That said, with what I know now, and the fact that Dario Gradi had many boys staying at his house which I believe he continues to have, then it is not surprising at all.’

Sheldon, however, says: ‘I have decided that Bennell’s account cannot be relied upon.’

FA chief executive Mark Bullingham apologised for a ‘gut-wrenching breach of trust’ on ‘a dark day for the beautiful game’ for which there were ‘no excuses’ and was asked if Gradi remained banned. ‘Absolutely,’ he said. When asked why, FA head of legal Polly Handford said: ‘Where someone is removed from football for safeguarding reasons, that will be because... that individual could potentially pose a risk of harm to children.’

Elsewhere, Chelsea were criticised for failing to protect a young player who had reported abuse by former scout Eddie Heath around 1975, while Aston Villa, then managed by Graham Taylor, ‘should have reported’ disclosures about sexual abuse by Ted Langford to the police when his role as a scout was terminated in July 1989.

Newcastle ‘should have acted more quickly’ after disclosures of abuse by coach George Ormond and Peterborough and Southampton ‘were aware of rumours about the inappropriate behaviour’ of ex-coach Bob Higgins, jailed for 24 years in 2019, and ‘were also aware of boys staying at his home’.

Manchester City, Newcastle and Southampton issued apologies. No statement was forthcoming from Crewe.

The FA could now face a parliamentary inquiry. Julian Knight MP, chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Committee, said: ‘The FA has grave questions to answer about its past record and needs to reassure parents about what it’s doing now to ensure that children are being kept safe from predators.’

Gradi later claimed he was unaware he was suspended, said he loved working with kids and added he would never do anything to harm them.

Some survivors have reacted with dismay. The Offside Trust, set up in the wake of the scandal, said: ‘It’s like playing in the world’s longest tournament only to get to the final and be told that the outcome had already been decided years ago. After more than 1,500 days of waiting, with survivors feeling at times that the issue was being kicked into the long grass.’

Ian Ackley, a Bennell victim, described the review as ‘diluted as a Vimto for a two-year-old’.