Now 20 players say they were abused as FA launches inquiry
FOOTBALL’S governing body last night announced an independent inquiry into the abuse scandal after it emerged that at least 20 former players had come forward with allegations.
As the crisis escalated, the head of the Professional Footballers’ Association warned that up to seven clubs were embroiled in the claims – and that the number was expected to rise.
The Football Association finally took action yesterday, appointing senior barrister Kate Gallafent, QC, to oversee an internal review to examine ‘what information the FA was aware of at the relevant times… what clubs were aware of, and what action was or should have been taken’.
Four police forces are already investigating complaints going back decades and an NSPCC hotline set up for former players has received more than 100 calls.
The Scottish FA is also encouraging anyone with knowledge of child abuse in the game to speak out.
PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor said more than 20 players had contacted it to report abuse alleged to have occurred at clubs including Leeds United and Blackpool, which had not previously been named.
‘I’m expecting there will be more,’ he told the BBC. ‘I think we have six or seven clubs and areas. I can’t believe it’s just going to be in the north-west and north-east.’
He described as ‘feasible’ a press report that an unnamed Premier League club paid a player to stop him going public with claims he was raped by a youth team coach. The abuse had taken place in the 1970s but the victim had been encouraged to speak out in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal, the Sunday Telegraph reported. He Victim: Mr Hughes in his playing days was on the verge of doing so when the club ‘completely buried it’.
A string of former footballers have come forward since Andy Woodward spoke out last week about abuse he suffered at the hands of convicted child abuser Barry Bennell, a former coach at Crewe Alexandra and Manchester City. Bennell was jailed for four years for raping a British boy on a 1994 football tour of Florida, given a nine-year sentence for 23 offences against six boys in England in 1998 and jailed for a third time in 2015 after admitting abusing a boy at a 1980 football camp in Macclesfield.
Former England youth team player Anthony Hughes yesterday became the latest player to describe how he was abused by Bennell, who he said made youth team players watch hardcore porn videos at his home.
‘He had a great big stack of tapes in his house,’ Mr Hughes, 44, told the Sunday Mirror.
‘Looking back, I feel angry. It is sickening how he behaved.’
Donna Martin, the Scottish FA’s child wellbeing and protection manager, said: ‘The safety and wellbeing of children is of paramount importance to the Scottish FA, and significant steps have been taken to ensure that their protection is integral to Scottish football’s decision-making processes.’
Fraser Wishart, PFA Scotland chief executive, said: ‘It would be naïve to think that these allegations are unique to one part of the UK.’
Tam Baillie, Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, said: ‘I fear we are on the brink on many more revelations.’
John Greechan – Page 78
‘I’m expecting there will be more’