Now The F.A. is into the second year of the biggest and most wide-ranging sports child protection programme in the world, aiming to tackle everything, from serious sexual abuse to swearing, head-on. It's a massive challenge.

"Protecting children who play football is not The F.A.'s goal," insisted The F.A.'s Head of Education and Child Protection, Tony Pickerin, "It's our duty."

The work began two years ago with the creation of a specific Child Protection department within The F.A. A unit was set up to deal with all allegations of abuse of children in football and a child protection Helpline was set up, in association with the NSPCC. At the same time an educational team began researching the best ways to teach adults in the game how they should be working with children, and what they should do if they come across unacceptable behaviour in others.

"We are two years down the line now, and we have already trained 50,000 people through the child protection course devised by our education team," said Tony Pickerin.

"That's 50,000 pairs of eyes who know more about looking after children than they did before they went on the course, and 50,000 pairs of eyes who now know what to do if they notice something wrong."

The F.A. has installed a trained Child Protection Officer at every County F.A., and the long-term goal is to have one at each of the 1,000 leagues and 26,000 clubs in the country where under-18's play. And for those adults unable to take a three-day course, the Child protection and best practice - A guide and certificate, to be launched in August, will result in more and more clued up football people.

A process of vetting has also begun, whereby every single person who works with children in football (and eventually every coach, referee, player and medic registered with The F.A.) will have a criminal record check. Another mammoth task. "Football is a privileged membership," said Tony Pickerin,

"And in my view protecting children comes first. We're not going to turn away everyone with any kind of record. We will look at each case individually, but we will obviously take into account all offences, particularly those - as you would expect - to do with children, any sexual offences, any violent offences and anything to do with drugs.

"This whole project is enormous and it can't be done quickly, in fact the work will never stop. But we are very clear about where we are trying to get to - somewhere where the game is safe and enjoyable for all."
 
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