Football Abuse Scandal - could it have been prevented?
Wednesday, December 07, 2016
A few months ago, I approached a gentleman to talk about the due diligence undertaken in Youth Football. This was actually in relation to the potential for Agents to take advantage of eager and excitable young footballers and their parents… both of whom might, quite understandably, have little to no insight into how Youth Football might work. And why would they? They have Agents to look after them. It was my opinion that these young boys were ripe to be financially taken advantage of… I wish I’d been accurate on that score. Because the truth was much, much worse.
Around 3 weeks ago, defender Andy Woodward spoke out about the abuse which he endured during his time as a youth footballer. Since then, there have been 350 further allegations of alleged abuse in youth football. Greg Clark, FA chairman, has claimed it to be “… the biggest crisis in the history of the Football Association.”
Anyone who is working with, or has any responsibility to children, has a duty of care. This duty includes making sure they’re not left vulnerable and exposed to being taken advantage of. Children in any arena should be able to trust those around them, 100%.
Abuse of Trust
As we’ve recently seen, the trust which was given to some adults in youth football, was abused on many occasions, proving that the current due diligence failed on a monumental scale. And yet this terrible scandal could most likely have been avoided if due diligence had taken just one step further.
With Forensic Assessment of Youth Football employees, children will be so much safer.
Since the scandal emerged, three footballers and abuse victims Andy Woodward, Steve Walters and Chris Unsworth have launched ‘The Offside Trust’. This is a support network for young victims who have been subjected to abuse as youth footballers. It’s an amazing thing for these three men to do and will play a huge part in healing the wounds - but the ultimate protections of young players shouldn’t happen after-the-fact of course; it should happen before.
Prevention is much better than cure.
I have over 30 years’ experience in protecting children from serious threat.
If I’d vetted the coaches involved in the abuse scandal, it’s highly probable that very telling characteristics would have come to light. Characterises that would have sent out warning signs and prevented abusers getting anywhere near the children in the first place.
Nothing is 100% certain but, with fuller assessment, we get as close to 100% as possible.
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