The UK government is considering the possibility of putting a Football Regulator in place. One of the new body’s responsibilities would be to reduce the ongoing child abuse that is rife within English football. The police are usually unwilling to take on cases of child abuse (sexual or physical) based on a complaint from the victim’s parents.
Institutional close relationships exist between the police and English football clubs. The football club will manage the number of police officers it requires to provide security for a football match and which issues it want the police to turn a blind eye towards, like child sexual abuse.
Therefore, if a parent reports a football club for child sexual abuse, the police will likely approach their existing contacts at the football club in question, which will result in the enquiry going no further.
The football club will assure the police that they will address the issue and explicitly tell them they do not want the incident investigated.
Inevitably, the allegations will be hushed up, and the police will make sure that the complainants get no further.
The Football Association “did not do enough to keep children safe,” according to an autonomous investigation into past child sexual abuse in football. Examining child abuse between 1970 and 2005, the report
Although the investigation claimed the FA acted “far too slowly” to implement kid protection measures, it stated there was no indication the FA knew of a problem before the summer of 1995.
The controversy over claims of historical child sex abuse has developed as follows:
Former Crewe player Andy Woodward waived his anonymity on November 16, 2016, to disclose that former coach Barry Bennell sexually molested him when he was a child. The first to talk about these incidents in public is him.
Former England and Tottenham player Paul Stewart claims a coach mistreated him during his early years. 23 November 2016 Later on, Frank Roper, with ties to Blackpool FC, is selected the coach.
The NSPCC opened a hotline with FA specifically for assisting football players who have suffered a sexual assault on November 23, 2016. The first week brings more than 860 calls.
25 November 2016: previous youth team members Chris Unsworth, Woodward, and Steve Walters, as well as previous BBC Victoria Derbyshire interview subjects, also waived their identities. Former Crewe Alexandra and Manchester City coach Bennell sexually mistreated them.
November 2016: Police searches for Cheshire, Northumbria, Metropolitan and Greater Manchester start.
November 2016: Independent investigations into past abuse started by several teams, including Chelsea, Manchester City, and Crewe Alexandra.
December 2016: Barrister Clive Sheldon QC’s independent investigation into non-recent child sex abuse announced by the Football Association (FA), England’s regulatory body for football, The Scottish Football Association, also schedules a review.
December 2, 2016: Gary Johnson, an ex-Chelsea player, says the club paid him £50,000 to silence claims against dead former senior scout Eddie Heath.
January 11, 2017: Reportedly making its first appeal for evidence, the independent study of child abuse claims in football writes to all English and Welsh football clubs, amateur and professional, requesting information regarding complaints between 1970 and 2005.
October 2017: 10 April Fresh claims of child sex abuse directed against Jim Torbett, the founder of Celtic Boys’ Club, in a BBC Scotland documentary. Following his conviction of sexually abusing three boys over eight years, he is later imprisoned for six years.
At Liverpool Crown Court, ex-football coach Barry Bennell is imprisoned for 31 years on 50 counts of child sexual abuse.
March 2017 Working for Newcastle United’s junior system in the 1990s, young coach George Ormond is found guilty of several sex abuse charges spanning 25 years.
Michael “Kit” Carson dies in a car accident on the first day of his sex assault trial at Peterborough Crown Court. He refuted allegations about eleven youngsters under the age of sixteen. He was employed with Cambridge United, Peterborough United, and Norwich City.
Manchester City creates a multi-million-pound compensation plan for former coaches at the club who have caused historical child sexual abuse.
Following an admission of a string of child sex abuse crimes, Jim McCafferty, a coach and kit man for the Celtic minor squad, is sentenced to extra time. He is the fourth individual found guilty of historical sexual assault in the year to May associated with Celtic or Celtic Boys’ Club.
Bob Higgins was found guilty of 45 charges of indecent assault against teenage males at Bournemouth Crown Court. Mostly, his victims were Southampton FC and Peterborough United trainees.
August 6, 2019: A “prolific and manipulative sexual abuser” free to operate “unchallenged” targeted young Chelsea players for years, according to a damning investigation. Eddie Heath, the ex-chief scout who passed away in 1983, trained and mistreated young boys between the ages of ten and seventeen during the 1970s. After the report’s publication, Chelsea’s board apologised “unreservedly”.
An independent investigation reveals “significant institutional failings” and that the FA did not “do enough to keep children safe”.
If you or anyone you know have been affected by the people highlighted in this article, then please report those individuals to the Police on 101 (999 if an emergency) or visit their online resources for further details of the options for reporting a crime. You can also make a report at Crimestoppers should you wish to be completely anonymous. There is help available on our support links page.