Young footballers faced sex abuse

INQUIRY: Hundreds of children’s lives were ruined by abuse over three-anda-half decades as football administrators ignored warning signs.

The Football Association, the Premier League and the EFL have apologised to survivors and thanked them for speaking out about the horrors they endured.

HUNDREDS OF children’s lives were ruined by abuse over threeand-a-half decades as warning signs were missed out of “ignorance and naivety”, an independent review has concluded.

The Football Association, the Premier League and the EFL have apologised to survivors and thanked them for their bravery in speaking out about the horrors they endured at the hands of abusers, some of whom had connections to professional clubs.

The FA was found to be guilty of an inexcusable “institutional failing” for delaying the implementation of child protection measures between the autumn of 1995 and the spring of 2000.

In all, the report from Clive Sheldon QC which was published yesterday said at least 240 suspects had been identified along with 692 survivors, but he believed the number of instances of abuse was actually far higher because a great deal of it has not been reported.

“Warning signs were often missed or not acted upon,” Mr Sheldon said. “This was usually out of ignorance or naivety. There was often a feeling that without ‘concrete evidence’ or a specific allegation from a child nothing could, or should, be done, and so there was a reluctance to investigate or monitor, let alone confront the perpetrator and interfere with his actions.”

The FA’s chief executive Mark Bullingham said what had occurred was a “gut-wrenching breach of trust” and he confirmed his organisation would adopt all 13 recommendations to improve safeguarding made by Sheldon in his report.

Mr Sheldon concluded that the FA had “not done enough to keep children safe” in the period between 1995 and 2000. While he felt improvements were made thereafter, he highlighted key mistakes in the period that followed, such as the failure to monitor serial abuser Barry Bennell – described by the judge who sentenced him to 31 years in prison in 2018 as “the devil incarnate” – on his release from prison in 2003.

Although he did not return to football, the FA had “allowed children to be put at potential risk” by not monitoring him. Bennell, who worked for clubs including Manchester City and Stoke City, was not suspended by the FA until 2011.

The FA also failed to revisit allegations made against former Southampton and Peterborough youth coach Bob Higgins even when the standard of proof required in disciplinary cases was lowered in 2003. Higgins was sentenced to 24 years in prison for abusing 24 youth players over a 25-year period in 2019. Clubs and individuals were also criticised for failing to prevent abuse.