United Kingdom

The IWF has partnered with Everton Football Club to help make the Internet a safer place. The IWF is an independent, non-profit organisation that works internationally to stop the revictimization of child sexual abuse victims and to make the Internet a safer place. We provide the UK Hotline for reporting child sexual abuse content. Our expert analysts assess more than 1,000 webpages containing illicit content every week, and help victims by removing and stopping the upload and sharing of these images on the web.

The article below was written by Maddie Grounds, content writer for the Immigration Advice Service, an organisation of immigration solicitors that help undocumented migrants to regulate their status in the UK. 

The views expressed are that of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of ChildHub.

The safeguarding framework is an overarching approach to safeguarding children in and through sport.

The framework incorporates: standards, support, progress and evaluation

The framework consists of five standards that a sports organisation should demonstrate it undertakes at all levels of its sport.

In order to meet the framework, organisations will identify actions for implementation. Each of these actions will be promoted and supported through effective communication and safeguarding training opportunities that will benefit the organisation.

A report by Charles Geekie QC said chief scout Eddie Heath had groomed and attacked boys, aged 10 to 17, in the 1970s and it alleges that Chelesea officials must have "turned a blind eye to what they saw". Chelsea have now apologised “unreservedly” to young players who were the target of a “prolific sexual abuser”. Charles Geekie QC’s report, with evidence from 23 victims, said chief scout Eddie Heath had groomed and attacked boys, aged 10 to 17, in the 1970s. Club chairman Bruce Buck has met with 17 of the abused to now apologise.

Bob Higgins, 66, from Southampton, was found guilty last year of one count of indecent assault, and a further 45 counts in a retrial at Bournemouth Crown Court.

The trials heard that Higgins abused his position of power over young players to take advantage of them for his own sexual purposes during his time running youth training programmes at Southampton and Peterborough United.

He was convicted of groping them during post-exercise soapy massages as well as at his home and in his car.

The article takes an article from the Independent that claims football is not rife with child abusers, and tries to uncover the facts behind the article. It also examines the policy and regularory framework around it as well as professional awareness about the phenomenon. 

As the World Cup was launched an NGO started a campaign to draw attention to the issue of domestic violence. "Women experience violence and abuse at the hands of their partners every day, not just when football is on TV", the spot says. 

This article contains a series of powerful messages regarding to DOmestic Violence and football as well as very good example, including links, of raising awareness material on this topic.

BBC Sports reports that UEFA has contacted the Scottish FA about historic child sexual abuse. The SFA in turn has commissioned an independent review into the matter in 2017 which came back with 100 recommendations. UEFA made a statement that they fully trusted the SFA to deal with the situation properly. UEFA's interest was heightened by complaints that the authorities have not done enough to investigate allegations of child sexual abuse.