This month marks 10 years since the mass public disclosures made by former footballers in 2016 about the non-recent child sexual abuse that they experienced whilst playing the game they loved.
We spoke to FA Head of Safeguarding, Sue Ravenlaw, to reflect on those courageous and powerful disclosures, the importance of safeguarding in football, and the launch of the new ‘Voices of Truth’ digital platform today.
Voices of Truth acknowledges the horrific abuse that survivors suffered as children in football, their incredible courage and conviction in coming forward – whether publicly or privately – and the game’s gratitude to them, for the significant contribution they have made to driving change in safeguarding across the game.
Sue, as we approach the tenth anniversary of the moment when former footballers began speaking publicly about the sexual abuse they experienced as children, what are your reflections a decade on?
This was a deeply troubling time for football, as we faced into not only the appalling abuse that had been perpetrated, but the huge scale of it across the game. We had to move very quickly to provide support to hundreds of people who came forward at once, and we are forever grateful to the National Policing’s Operation Hydrant team for their wise counsel and guidance they gave us at the time and continue to give us now.
These revelations had a significant impact across the game – and put a clear spotlight on the historic failings of the safeguarding of children within English football.
For us, this anniversary is about acknowledging survivors, whether they waived their anonymity or not, and whether they have come forward to disclose their abuse or not. We recognise the long-lasting impact the abuse had on them, their lives, and their families, and we’re reflecting on what football has learned – and put into practice to improve football for future generations.
Whether survivors spoke publicly in the media or privately to the Police, NSPCC or The FA, they showed immense courage in speaking about their abuse.
It was Andy Woodward’s harrowing account of the horrific abuse he suffered as a talented young footballer that opened the gateway for others publicly and hundreds privately to come forward. In the days following Andy’s courageous disclosure we saw Steve Walters, Paul Stewart, David White, Derek Bell, Gary Johnson and others all speaking their truths in a very raw and honest way, that captured the hearts and minds of people across football and wider society.
Amongst the survivors who came forward were Dean Radford and Ian Ackley, who had bravely and resolutely come forward in the 1990s, featuring in Channel 4’s Soccer’s Foul Play documentary and who, to the deep regret of The FA, were ignored at that time. And David Lean who had successfully taken on the Crown Prosecution Service to pursue a complaint against his abuser, who was subsequently convicted in 2015, a signal to others that this was possible. Gary Cliffe, Dion Raitt and others also reported their complaints about abusers to the Police before 2016.
We partnered with the NSPCC who launched a bespoke helpline number on 23 November 2016, and they worked closely with Police Forces and the Hydrant Programme. The FA Safeguarding Case Management Team were inundated with referrals and worked closely with policing to manage all live concerns about anyone who continued to work in football, who may pose a risk to children or adults at risk.
We arranged meetings with the survivors who had made themselves known to us, so we could listen to what they wanted to share, offer our sincere apologies that football failed to protect them, and to seek to provide them with the support they needed. We partnered with Sporting Chance, undertaking due diligence on their network of therapists to ensure they had the credentials and experience to support the needs of survivors of non-recent child sexual abuse.
Survivor-led groups like the Offside Trust and SAVE formed, as survivors were compelled to support each other and influence change. Those that set the groups up have spoken of being overwhelmed by the number of survivors reaching out to them for support, all while some were grappling with their own trauma that had surfaced after years of being buried. The people who gave their time, energy and commitment to supporting others were and are still incredible.
Following scores of meetings with individuals and groups of survivors, in 2018, we established our own FA Survivor Support and Safeguarding Advisory Group (FASSSAG). The group is made up of members with lived experience, alongside independent safeguarding and wellbeing professionals and it continues to provide invaluable input into our ongoing safeguarding work today. We also continue to meet with survivors, who want to be heard by The FA.
What is your message to the survivors who came forward in 2016?
We acknowledge you and we are deeply sorry that you had horrific experiences in football. We know how immensely challenging it was and, for many, still is. We recognise that this anniversary may well be challenging, too. We are here, ready to listen and provide support to those who have come forward and anyone who still wants to.
When crimes are reported to the police, unless the victims ask to speak with The FA, we don’t tend to know who they are. We continue to work with the police, who are always willing to facilitate a connection between survivors and The FA, if that’s what the survivor wants. We then liaise with them and see what support they might need.
People can reach out to us via the ‘Voices of Truth’ signposting; our safeguarding section on TheFA.com; and by emailing safeguarding@thefa.com. Ultimately, we are here to support, however we can.
What steps have been taken since the findings of the Sheldon Review were published to ensure this never happens again?
The Sheldon Review was a really important body of work. It took four-and-a-half years to produce, because of the various criminal trials that were ongoing during this period that needed to take precedence, and importantly included survivor accounts in relation to multiple perpetrators. The Review team and the Police had full access to all electronic and paper records that The FA held.
It's important to say however, The FA and football acted immediately to check and challenge the safeguards we had built since the 2000s when our safeguarding work in earnest began. We didn't wait until the Sheldon Review was published in 2021.
From 2016 onwards, The FA, alongside the Premier League and EFL actively addressed safeguarding processes throughout the game, systematically strengthening the safeguards through enhanced standards and requirements, education programmes and campaigns and we have made significant strides since then.
We published our first public-facing safeguarding strategy in 2021, which embraced the recommendations from the Sheldon Review. As part of this strategy, we included some themes we had already been working on after listening to and learning from survivors. One of the key steps is being far more transparent about what we do in safeguarding, and each year we produce an annual report to update on the progress we’ve made against our safeguarding strategy. Each report since 2022 can be seen here, and our current four-year safeguarding strategy, ‘An Ever-Safer Culture’, can be viewed here.
Safeguarding is and must always remain central to all that we do in football. Each season, all clubs from the Premier League and Women’s Super League to grassroots, sign up to our commitment statements, specifying their safeguarding responsibilities and accountability.
We also ensure that there’s an independent lens on what we, the professional clubs and County FAs do. Therefore, a rolling programme of independent assessments assists The FA, County FAs, men’s and women’s Professional Leagues and Clubs, Premier League Foundation and EFL in the Community and respective Professional Football Club Charities to strive to maintain and continuously improve the highest safeguarding and wellbeing standards.
Given the scale of grassroots football, data management systems are used to ensure those people with roles in grassroots clubs and semi-pro clubs are compliant with vetting and training requirements. County FAs visit 13% of the grassroots clubs and activity each season to check and challenge implementation of club policies and procedures. They also take time to speak with parents, coaches and children to ensure safeguarding is at the forefront of club processes and if there are areas for the club to improve on, then the county works with the club on an action plan to make changes.
The ‘Voices of Truth’ platform has launched today. Can you share a little more about it?
Alongside our advisory group, we’ve been considering the best way to acknowledge this important moment. Led by those with lived experience, we have created a permanent reminder through our new ‘Voices of Truth’ platform, which has a digital and physical footprint.
Prior to the personal disclosures from survivors 10 years ago, there had been a wall of silence that had stood for far too long. When Andy Woodward and other survivors spoke out publicly and hundreds followed privately to the Police, NSPCC and FA, their voices created a chorus of truth – and this is where the ‘Voices of Truth’ platform stems from.
The FA Survivor Support and Safeguarding Advisory Group wanted a platform to bring together in one place the narrative around what happened, including the Sheldon Review, The FA’s response and important steps taken, the club reviews, clear signposting to support, and to highlight the ongoing safeguarding work taking place across the game today. It’s a place where the story of what happened is told, where valuable support is signposted to, and where the good work of survivors and the game is shared.
We launched it today, ahead of England's UEFA Nations League match against Croatia at Wembley Stadium, and have shared a toolkit with professional clubs, County FAs and safeguarding partners so the whole game can get behind it. I’d encourage everyone to visit the platform and find out further information here.
For those who might not know what The FA’s Safeguarding team does, could you talk us through your day-to-day work?
Firstly, it’s really important to recognise that everyone in football, at every level of the game, from Boards and Committees to the pitch side, is responsible for safeguarding. Countless people across the game care passionately about this work and collaborate to help to create the right culture and environments to keep children and adults at risk safe. This is driven by those in safeguarding roles, from Board and Committee leads, to professional club safeguarding teams and officers, and to grassroots club welfare officers who have additional roles and responsibilities to deliver. We acknowledge and thank them for their phenomenal energy, commitment and leadership of safeguarding.
At The FA, we have a team of 37 dedicated safeguarding professionals, that work across The FA and in partnership with stakeholders across the game. One part of the team is focused on preventative work, driving the strategy, policy, standards, education programmes, campaigns and messaging to keep safeguarding at the heart of everything we do. They also support the risk assessments of FA-led activity, including with the England teams and Wembley events, working across The FA to embed safeguards in everything that we do.
The case management part of the team works alongside clubs and County FAs, to manage cases that meet the threshold for investigation by The FA, working closely with the statutory agencies. They implement The FAs Safeguarding Regulations and apply suspensions and other risk management interventions to help ensure the safety of children and adults at risk. They also support professional and semi-pro clubs and County FAs to deal with lower-level concerns that might not meet that threshold but need an intervention to ensure behaviours are addressed and don't perpetuate.
How do you work with wider footballing organisations to meet the highest safeguarding standards?
There's a body of stakeholders across the game who have delegated responsibilities for their areas – including the Premier League, Premier League Foundation EFL, EFL in the Community, Women’s Super League Football, National League System (NLS), Women’s National League (WNL), Professional Footballers Association, League Managers Association, Pro Ref and County FAs – and we collaborate and work closely with all of them.
They each have their own policies and standards in place, and a direct responsibility and accountability for those parts of the game. These ladder up to the overarching policy that all parts of the game align with. We have forums to discuss the work that is going on and each body works directly with our case management and preventative teams. Examples of safer working practice and collaborative working come from all stakeholders and levels of the game, which is brilliant and we reflect some of these in the annual reports we publish.
The Professional Leagues run a significant education programme, along with the Premier League Foundation and EFL in the Community, tailored to support the work that goes on in the clubs and football club charities who have a strong community reach. A great example of this is here.
The ‘Play Safe’ campaign is a great example of the whole game coming together to keep safeguarding front of mind. It’s also testament to the survivors who requested a dedicated day of safeguarding as one of the Sheldon Review recommendations. Different bodies adapt the campaign to drive maximum impact in their areas, and during our 2026 Play Safe Weekend we saw excellent ‘Keep Up the Convo’ activations from professional clubs through to grassroots clubs and a 750,000 reach through social channels. A quick online search of ‘Play Safe in football’ will find plenty of great content including lots of user-generated content that demonstrates this engagement.
It’s also important to talk about referees, and the power imbalances that can exist for young referees. Following a few cases involving high-profile referees, we commissioned a review of the safeguards underpinning refereeing activity and have been delivering tailored work with Pro Ref and our own Refereeing team over the past season. This includes bespoke messaging with and for young referees through our ‘Play Safe’ campaign and ‘Safeguarding Leadership in Referee Development’ mandatory workshops for those supporting referee development. This explores safeguarding risks for under-18 referees and adults at risk, professional boundaries power imbalances, and early warning signs.
How has safeguarding in football changed in recent times, and are you confident about the future?
Undoubtably safeguarding across the game was significantly accelerated by what came to light 10 years ago, which is one of the main legacies that survivors have had in raising awareness of what happens when safeguarding is not front and centre. That meant we were able to put in place high levels of standards and create greater collaboration across English football. It also brought sharply into view the importance of safeguarding for decision makers, owners, Boards etc – people for whom safeguarding is not their day-to-day work, but who are accountable for what goes on in their club, league, county, governing body etc. It demonstrated how vital it is to ensure safeguarding is embedded in all football activity.
Professor Celia Brackenridge had recognised the issue of sexual and physical abuse of young athletes by coaches in the mid-1980s. She conducted pioneering research and advocacy efforts that significantly helped shape child protection policies in sport. The FA’s work was inspired by her work and in the early 2000s, a cultural shift took place over a few seasons, where those in activity with children and adults at risk recognised and then accepted that if you work with children or adults at risk, then you need to have certain credentials in place. This includes being vetting checked and trained and following safeguarding protocols. People also understand that they may receive a disclosure from a child or an adult, and that they need to know where to refer concerns to. FA Safeguarding Regulations have made it mandatory for individuals to report safeguarding concerns to The FA for years, and in 2026, this has also become a legal requirement, through the Crime and Policing Act, April 2026. This legal requirement is something that survivors have campaigned for, and it was a strong feature in the Government’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in society.
Other changes in legislation inspired by survivors and driven via the NSPCC’s ‘Close the Loophole’ campaign, include the extension of the UK’s ‘Position of Trust’ legislation. This made it a criminal offence for a person aged 18 or over to engage in sexual activity with a 16-or-17-year-old if they regularly coach, teach, train, supervise, or instruct them in a sport or religion. This was already covered in FA Regulations but significantly strengthens the messaging and, of course, the consequences of breaching this requirement.
Collaboration across the game has strengthened greatly, as the responsibility for safeguarding is for everyone involved and cannot fall just to a few individuals or organisations. There has always been good collaboration but it’s now stronger than ever and the football bodies share each other’s work to improve its reach and raise standards everywhere.
How can everyone in the game play their part to support The FA in keeping children and adults at risk safe?
Everyone involved in football has a responsibility to keep our children and adults at risk safe. We must all remain vigilant and be proactive when it comes to safeguarding.
Working in partnership is to everyone’s advantage. Our survivor group collaborated with the police for the ‘I Am Ready’ and ‘When You Are Ready’ campaigns for survivors – which we signpost to on our ‘Voices of Truth’ platform – to influence how those campaigns have been shaped. We work with the NSPCC, the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) and other sports and charities, because collaboration, partnership and continuous learning are all so important.
Our safeguarding courses which we’ve rolled out and evolved since 2000/01 are also immensely valuable for helping anyone with a role in football to understand their responsibilities. The reach of these courses is huge; with 228,000 completions in 2025/26, and many of the courses are free to access. We deliver bespoke courses to NLS and WNL clubs to meet their needs, and, in partnership with NSPCC, to the safeguarding champions on boards of The FA, County FAs, and NLS and WNL clubs.
As a parent or carer, it’s vitally important to understand what safeguarding is and what behaviours are acceptable and this includes what grooming looks and sounds like. We know from listening to survivors and parents of survivors, that they often felt immense guilt as a result of being groomed by abusers. With survivor input, we developed a course centred around this which launched in 2021 and reached over 40,000 people. Five years on, we are relaunching that content to bring it more up to date with the changing formats of the game and make it more accessible and to extend its reach. I’d also encourage parents and carers to take a look at this year’s ‘Play Safe’ film, ‘Keep up the Convo’. This was targeted towards parents and coaches to encourage them to have regular conversations with children to ensure they feel like they can talk to them about anything.
What are your final thoughts as we reflect on this 10-year anniversary?
I would like to say a truly sincere thank you to those with lived experience who've come forward and helped make football safer. To those who haven't reached out and may be struggling, we’re here for you if you want to talk to someone and access support. If you want to report abuse to the police, there is further information here for you:
- I Am Ready – is a website designed in collaboration with victims and survivors of child sexual abuse and exploitation, which for the first time, provides consistent, trauma-informed and accessible information in one place.
- When You Are Ready – centres on a hard hitting three-minute film which features the voices of a number of victims and survivors who have experienced child sexual abuse and exploitation – this includes both contact and online offences. If someone is ready to take the next step in disclosing their experience, the film signposts victims and survivors to the bespoke campaign website directing them to a range of services and support organisations, as well as including details on how to report to the police.
The game is undoubtably a safer place now thanks to the honesty and bravery of survivors. However, we must never be complacent, the statistics for child sexual abuse in society continue to rise, and football and sport continues to see this reflected in our settings.
To everybody working across the game and in safeguarding, a huge thank you for your energy, compassion, dedication and service to drive safeguarding. Thank you to the leaders that listen to what is needed to keep children and adults at risk safe, because it is crucially important that we continue to keep safeguarding at the forefront of everything that we do.
Links to support and reporting a concern:
- Voices of Truth
- If a child or adult at risk is in immediate danger, contact the Police on 999
- NSPCC nspcc.org.uk T: 0808 800 5000
- NSPCC Sexual Abuse in Football Helpline T: 0800 023 2642
- Follow our guidance on reporting concerns here
- When you are Ready
- I am Ready
