Our own Liz Duncan has been featured on ITV national news about sex abuse in football and sport
ITV is reporting that over 20 football players have now approached the Football Association about sex abuse The growing storm has prompted the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, Gordon Taylor, to tell ITV News there are unreported sex abuse cases from “all over the country”.
This follows an announcement by the FA that it has instructed a ‘senior lawyer’ to assist in investigating historical sex abuse cases within the world of football.
But the problem is not confined to football. Sport as a whole needs to be considered. Liz Duncan, a lawyer in our specialist child abuse team, told ITV News that all sports need to be looked at in the wake of the football abuse scandal. She warned that sport provides predatory abusers the opportunities they crave. In particular the relationship between a coach and a young athlete is one of power and it’s one of vulnerability. It is therefore ripe for abuse to occur and this demands stringent safeguarding.
It is also being reported that senior figures within football have ignored warning signs and their inaction has allowed the problem to flourish. Now that the media spotlight is firmly trained on the FA and other governing sports bodies abuse survivors may finally get answers to their questions.