One of the United Kingdom’s most experienced prosecutors has called on sport to introduce an independent safeguarding regulator in the wake of several high-profile allegations of abuse.
Nazir Afzal, who served as Chief Crown Prosecutor for North West England between 2011 and 2015, said “the statistics in sport are as heartbreaking as you can possibly imagine”, and called for governing bodies to self-fund a mechanism through which victims can report their experiences.
In November, a Premier League footballer accused of rape was further questioned by police, while the English Football Association (FA) also opened a safeguarding inquiry into a separate leading Premier League figure who has previously been investigated by the police for a number of sex offences. Neither can be named for legal reasons.
Last month, The Athletic also reported former Fulham Ladies captain Ronnie Gibbons’ allegations that the club’s then-owner Mohamed Al Fayed sexually assaulted her on two separate occasions in 2000. Subsequently, The Athletic also reported on three ex-Fulham Ladies players’ deep concerns that their allegations of sexual abuse at the football club in the 1990s and early 2000s were not properly investigated by the Metropolitan Police or the FA.
“Those women were brave to come…
