Glenn warns clubs over hush money
FA CHIEF executive Martin Glenn has said any clubs found to have paid hush money to keep victims of alleged child abuse quiet will be hit by tough punishments.
It has emerged that a number of top clubs may have used insurance policies and pay-offs to compensate victims of the fastdeveloping scandal, to stop them speaking about their ordeals.
The NSPCC has confirmed its dedicated hotline, launched to offer support to victims of child sex abuse in football, had received more than 800 calls in a week, and 13 police forces are looking into allegations of historical child sex abuse in football.
The FA have also launched an inquiry, and Glenn said: “If there are restrictive contracts through employment rules which prevent people speaking up about a crime, then it has to be resolved.
“The chairman is committed to a full review shining the torchlight into what happened in the past in football. If there has been any evidence of a breach of the rules, subject to due process with the police in this, we will apply the rules from top to bottom regardless of size of club. Football is in a very different place today to what it was in the past.
“Football takes child safety very seriously. We had 55,000 police checks last year, and ran 30,000 courses to explain the basis of child protection.
“If the FA have made errors, we’ll own up to them, as must the rest of football. We are being proactive. There will be an external-led review. This is a really serious issue for football and for society. With the FA taking the lead, opening ourselves up and laying bare the decisions made 25 years ago, doing the same with clubs, that’s all we can do.”
New England manager Gareth Southgate played alongside one of the players who has come forward to say he was abused, former England forward Paul Stewart, when he was on loan at Crystal Palace.
Southgate said: “The world was very different 20 years ago. It is important we acknowledge that and learn from it. I think a lot of those lessons have been learned. But we mustn’t be complacent. The bravery of the players who have come forward is exceptional.
“I’m also a parent. Every junior team now has its own child protection officer. We have to investigate what happened, learn from the past, and if I’m a parent sending my child to a game at the weekend, I feel we’re in a better place now than we were in the past.”
Former Newcastle United striker David Eatock became the latest footballer to tell police he was sexually abused in the sport.
Mr Eatock, now 40, has said that after he joined Newcastle at 18, George Ormond, a former club youth coach, indecently assaulted him and performed a sex act in front of him in two separate incidents.
Ormond was jailed for six years in 2002 for numerous assaults spanning 24 years.
Lessons have been learned
ABUSE TOLL SURGES: P20