The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Football sex abuse probe ready to begin gathering information
A review into incidents of abuse in Scottish football is ready to begin the information-gathering stage.
Preparatory work has been concluded for the review commissioned by the Scottish Football Association and chaired by Martin Henry.
The sport has been rocked by claims from former players that they were abused by people in positions of authority.
The other members of the review team are Ruth Sills, development manager of Children 1st, Mark Cooper, a retired detective superintendent with Police Scotland and Bruce Nicol, an occupational psychologist.
Mr Henry said: “We have now concluded the preparatory work for our review, which has incorporated the confirmation of our administrative process, the completion of a scoping exercise, as well as assigning roles and responsibilities for the team.
“We now approach the crucial yet sensitive stage of informationgathering.
“I would like to call on all relevant stakeholders within Scottish football to give their full and unencumbered cooperation to this part of the review, in order that we can establish as full a picture as possible.
“We also wish to ensure that survivors are given as much support as possible and, in this regard, I would like to thank the Scottish FA for its work through the Children’s Wellbeing department and with other partner agencies.
“We anticipate this stage taking place throughout the summer, with a view to evaluation of evidence and the writing of the report commencing in late autumn.”
The review team will present the final report to the SFA board and publish in full in early 2018.
Mr Henry added: “I cannot stress enough the importance of taking the appropriate time and consideration to provide a meaningful review, to learn lessons from the past, but also to provide recommendations to ensure Scottish football is at the forefront of children’s wellbeing and protection now and in the future.
“The independent review team will work tirelessly on behalf of every survivor to achieve that aim.”