Sheldon report
The report into football’s child sex abuse scandal found that there were “significant institutional failings” by the FA in dealing with the accusations and that they “did not do enough to keep children safe”.
“The FA acted far too slowly to introduce appropriate and sufficient child protection measures, and to ensure that safeguarding was taken sufficiently seriously by those involved in the game,” said the 710-page Sheldon report, which focused on abuse of children between 1970 and 2005.
In response, FA chief executive Mark Bullingham apologised by addressing the victims directly, saying: “No child should ever have experienced the abuse you did. What you went through was horrific and it is deeply upsetting that more was not done by the game at the time, to give you the protection you deserved.”
The report found the FA culpable of multiple charges, including the failure to ban two of the most notorious abusers, Barry Bennell and Bob Higgins. In 2016,
ex-Crewe Alexandra player Andy Woodward opened up to The Guardian about the abuse that he suffered at the hands of Bennell, which led to several other players coming forward and to the FA commissioning the report. A three-part BBC documentary, Football’s
Darkest Secret, began in March, featuring several of the survivors telling their stories.