Top football clubs ‘leave youngsters vulnerable’
FOOTBALL clubs have ‘scant regard’ for child welfare, leaving young players at risk of potential abuse, Scotland’s children’s tsar has claimed.
Tam Baillie said children were ‘desperate to realise their dreams’ and as a result were ‘vulnerable to exploitation’.
Police are investigating 130 allegations of sexual abuse in Scottish football and have arrested two men as part of a probe into the scandal.
Evidence to the Scottish parliament’s health committee, which meets on Tuesday, raised concern over the commitment of clubs to preventing abuse.
Mr Baillie said: ‘My main concern is the power imbalance and unfair treatment of children involved with professional football clubs. This places the professional football clubs in a very powerful position with chilMinister dren desperate to realise their dreams and, as a result, vulnerable to exploitation. In my experience, the system in place gives scant regard to the best interests of the children involved.’
Mr Baillie, children and young people’s commissioner for Scotland, said there had been ‘some positive movement’ on the part of the Scottish Football Association (SFA) and the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) but ‘there are outstanding matters where the football authorities have proven intransigent’.
The sport was rocked at the end of last year by abuse claims from former players throughout the UK.
Police Scotland launched a major inquiry into non-recent child abuse in football and the SFA is also setting up an independent review.
It followed pressure from politicians, including Deputy First Minister John Swinney and former Justice Cathy Jamieson. In its submission to the committee’s inquiry, children’s charity NSPCC Scotland called for a law change to put sports coaches and youth workers in the same legal category as teachers when it comes to background checks.
Police Scotland said ‘there is a risk in relation to individuals who are working with vulnerable groups who have never been processed’ because they volunteered before checks came into force.
The SFA said in its submission: ‘While we have well-established policies, procedures and practice in place to respond to and manage concerns, any support we had previously provided had been directly to individuals currently involved within the Scottish FA.
‘Therefore, in adequately supporting the range of survivors of nonrecent sexual abuse we sought advice and expertise from Scottish Government personnel as well as professional and leading third sector organisations.
‘This has led to a planned approach of support for any survivor seeking help to access a needs assessment, provided by a clinical psychologist.’
The Professional Football Association Scotland said ‘football provides a far safer environment than in the past, particularly at professional level, but it would be naive to think that abuse could not go on today.’
In December it emerged that a suspected paedophile was allowed to continue working in football north of the Border for several years after being reported to the authorities. Hugh Stevenson, a youth coach and referee who died in 2004, has been accused of child sex offences.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We will continue to work closely with the Scottish FA and others, including the NSPCC, to consider what actions are required to ensure the system is as robust as possible and safeguards young people.’
‘Risk from those never processed’