Exclusive Sampson faced investigation a year before FA hired him

Plus Oliver Brown on the botched handling of the affair,

Mark Sampson was the subject of a safeguarding investigation more than a year before he became manager of England Women, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

The Football Association was plunged deeper into crisis over the Sampson scandal last night after it was claimed it had been warned about concerns over his conduct even before appointing him.

With the game still reeling from Sampson’s sacking over “clear evidence of inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour by a coach”, the Women in Football (WIF) network said “questions over Sampson’s suitability for the role were flagged to the FA as early as 2013 during the recruitment process”.

The Telegraph has also learnt that a rumour about Sampson while he was manager of Bristol Academy at South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (SGS) sparked a safeguarding inquiry there in 2012 that found no case to answer. Both developments raised serious questions about the due diligence carried out by the FA when it recruited Sampson, who it fired on Wednesday based on a report into a safeguarding investigation into him that it had produced 2½ years earlier but had gone unread by those at the top until last week.

Chief executive Martin Glenn had already admitted he regretted not demanding the report sooner, while technical director Dan Ashworth also appears guilty of showing a lack of curiosity about why Sampson had been placed on an education course following a year-long inquiry. The Telegraph has learnt that inquiry was triggered by an allegation shortly after Sampson’s appointment in Dec 2013, which was made by an adult female from SGS. The probe uncovered evidence of inappropriate relationships with players during Sampson’s time in Bristol but cleared him of being a safeguarding risk.

The intervention of WIF made for even more uncomfortable reading for the governing body, with the group saying: “WIF understands that questions over Sampson’s suitability for the role were flagged to the FA as early as 2013 during the recruitment process.

“The safeguarding investigation of 2014, Sampson being sent on an education course in 2015, Eniola Aluko’s [discrimination] complaint in 2016 and Dame Tanni Greythompson’s Duty of Care report published in April 2017 were all missed opportunities for the governing body to more closely examine the issues. It is unfathomable that an England manager could be sent on a course to emphasise the appropriate boundaries between coach and player, as a direct result of a safeguarding investigation, and not be subject to any sort of due diligence.”

WIF refused to reveal who they claim had been warned about Sampson or whether they were still working at the FA, although it is understood the matter was not raised directly with members of the panel which appointed him.

They were Ashworth, Sir Trevor Brooking, Adrian Bevington and its director of national game and women’s football, Kelly Simmons. Ashworth and Simmons are still at the FA, which said yesterday they could recall no such warnings being passed on to them. Brooking and Bevington, who until 2014 were the organisation’s director of football development and Club England managing director respectively, declined to comment.

Alex Horne, who was FA general secretary at that time, also declined to comment but is understood to have been aware of an allegation about Sampson that was still under investigation when he left the organisation the same year.

The FA said last night it had no knowledge of the 2012 investigation into Sampson while he was at Bristol Academy. It also insisted Glenn, who joined it in May 2015, retained the full backing of its board, despite his admission that he failed to seek more information on the inquiry when he was given a “perfunctory and verbal” report on it in October of that year.

The chairman of the Culture, Media & Sport select committee, Damian Collins MP, yesterday said Glenn’s position would be “untenable” if it was found warnings that might have seen Sampson dismissed earlier were ignored.

Collins this month summoned Glenn and other FA executives to appear before parliament on Oct 18, originally to grill them about a separate investigation into racism claims made against Sampson, who was cleared of any wrongdoing. Last night, the Guardian revealed that Glenn had admitted he had specifically requested a black female lawyer investigate the allegations, even though the FA’S lawyers had flatly denied such a request had been made.

England’s players, meanwhile, were said to be stunned by the sudden departure of Sampson. A source told The Telegraph there had never been any suggestion of inappropriate behaviour towards anyone in the current squad.

‘There were missed opportunities for the governing body to more closely examine the issues’