Professional footballers ‘too afraid to come forward over years of abuse’ MSPs hear

Holyrood’s health and sport committee was also told almost 1,000 youth coaches and officials have not completed full background checks.

It is probing child safety in sport after football was rocked at the end of last year by abuse claims from former players throughout the UK.

Police are investigating 130 allegations of sexual abuse in Scottish football and have arrested two men as part of a probe into the scandal.

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Jim McCafferty, 70, a former youth coach and kit man for Celtic, Hibernian and Falkirk, is awaiting trial in Northern Ireland over historic child sex offences.

I have been told there are cases of professionals not willing to come forward because they are frightened of what happens next

Fraser Wishart – Professional Football Association Scotland

In 1998 Celtic Boys’ Club founder Jim Torbett was jailed for two years for abusing three young players back in the sixties, including future Scotland footballer Alan Brazil.

Fraser Wishart, chief executive of the Professional Football Association Scotland told MSPs he fears other big name victims have yet to come forward .

He said: “In the past couple of years we have had more and more people coming forward. Players came forward in England – four or five of them now. We have not had that in Scotland.

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Footballers are keeping silent over decades of abuse as they are still too afraid to come forward

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Fraser Wishart, chief executive of the Professional Football Association Scotland

“Is that because of the environment, because there is no support there? I don’t know but there is an issue around it.

“How deep it goes we can only guess but, anecdotally, I have been told there are cases of professionals not willing to come forward because they are frightened of what happens next, what happens if it reaches the newspapers.”

But Mr Wishart insisted that football did not have a unique problem with abuse.

He said: “Look at youth groups, churches, schools, look at any place where adults have influence over young people. It is not unique to football. It’s part of the wider society.”

Committee convener Neil Findlay said there was “a serious issue” with child protection measures at the Scottish Youth Football Association when he heard that hundreds of coaches have not been properly checked.

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Amost 1,000 youth coaches and officials have not completed full background checks

Chief Executive David Little, said there are 13,000 officials registered with the association and 949 have not been through background checks.

But, he said, this relies on part time assistance from volunteers to maintain association records.

Mr Little said: “We have a churn of anywhere between 30 and 40 per cent of our members on a yearly basis, which causes great difficulties.

"There will always be people to be checked. We have carried out 16,646 checks and we have 949 officials we are working through.

“Those people are attending meetings and submitting forms every night of the week to catch up. We will spend £70,000 this year on the protection of our children.”

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Express Sport ranks the top 20 most valuable clubs in world football

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Express Sport ranks the top 20 most valuable clubs in world football

Mr Findlay voiced his concern that an association with “tens of thousands of members” relies on volunteers to enforce its child protection policy.

And he questioned if there has been a “failure of oversight”.

Mr Findlay said: “This hasn’t just happened overnight. I would think this is something that you need to look at.”

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