FA child sex abuse inquiry to reveal no cover-up or paedophile rings

The Football Association’s independent inquiry into child sex abuse in the national game before 2005 has found no evidence of institutional cover-ups or paedophile rings.

The inquiry, being led by Clive Sheldon QC, was set up in December 2016 after several former players came forward to tell their stories of being abused by coaches and scouts when they were youth footballers.

Asked to look at how football dealt with allegations of abuse in the past, Sheldon had hoped to complete his investigation by Easter but the sheer amount of work required has pushed this back until the autumn.

Sheldon and his team have interviewed many survivors of abuse and plan to meet more, reviewed hundreds of testimonies from other survivors, spoken to people with experience of safeguarding issues during the period and been through thousands of documents in the archives of the FA, English Football League, Premier League, county FAs and professional clubs.

Sheldon has written to every club and county FA asking for their help at the start of his inquiry.

The next step for Sheldon is the legal process known as Maxwellisation, which is named after the deceased media tycoon Robert Maxwell and a Department of Trade and Industry report that heavily criticised him in 1969.

Maxwell took the government department to court and won, a victory which changed how official inquiries are conducted by effectively giving those who will be criticised the right of reply before publication.

Sheldon expects the process to be wrapped up within four weeks. He will then pass his findings to the FA at the end of September.

The FA is expected to publish the report with any details of ongoing criminal proceedings redacted.