The victims are owed an apology and deserve action
I undertook chairing the review with one overriding objective: to give a collective voice to those who have suffered sexual abuse within Scottish football in silence.
The final report, which will provide testimony from survivors, will be published in the New Year and make uncomfortable reading for many.
That is how it should be: a glimpse into the decades-long pain, suffering and – lest it be forgotten –unbelievable strength and fortitude of those whose childhoods and even adulthoods were taken by those entrusted with their wellbeing.
I published an interim report in 2018 in order to allow football authorities and clubs to act on a number of recommendations drawn from the investigation of our review team.
Progress has been made and the work undertaken by the
SFA in appointing an Independent Wellbeing and Protection Review Board and increasing its wellbeing staff from one full-time employee to six should be recognised.
But there is still a way to go. What people expect from the review process is to address three core issues: who knew, what did they know, and what did they do about it? The final report will address these three issues head-on.
We’re in the game of talking about these shortcomings in Scottish football, the ones that led to this behaviour happening, but we’re also in the game of making sure this can never happen again.
The game owes a collective and sincere apology to each and every survivor of abuse but it also owes action.
An apology doesn’t make everything go away but it helps a lot of survivors to understand that the clubs fully acknowledge what has happened. Nothing short of an apology is going to allow that to happen.
There may be further legal recourse from survivors and that is their civil right, but it has never been my experience that survivors of sexual abuse who take civil action are motivated by money.
Primarily people affected by this issue just want some sense of personal justice in their life.
The voice of the survivors is central to what we are doing. Not just them but also the people who have been collaterally damaged by this issue: their family members, their parents and their children.
These are the voices the Scottish public need to hear and understand.