FRESH demands have been made for Scottish football’s governing body to launch an independent inquiry into the allegations of child abuse that have rocked the game.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said he did not believe the existing official inquiry into institutional child abuse allegations north of the Border should be extended to cover the game.
Instead, Mr Swinney said the Scottish Football Association (SFA) should set up its own independent probe.
The football body said last night it was “open-minded” about the idea.
More than 80 potential suspects have already been identified in the growing scandal over allegations of child abuse in football, north and south of the Border, in the 1970s and 1980s.
An inquiry has already been launched by the Football Association in England looking into how the organisation dealt with the issue in the past and police forces from every part of the country are now involved in criminal investigations.
In Scotland, further allegations emerged yesterday over disgraced talent spotter Gordon Neely, who worked with children at both Hibs and Rangers during the 1980s. The Sunday Post reported that Neely had been dismissed by Hibs after being accused of molesting two boys, but the club kept the allegations quiet. Neely went on to Rangers where he was later sacked, following allegations that he had abused a child there.
The existing inquiry into child abuse in state-run children’s homes should be allowed to continue without being extended further, Mr Swinney said.
The Deputy First Minister said it would be wrong to change the nature of that inquiry and push the timescale for its deliberations out any further.
He added that “the SFA has got to consider setting up an independent inquiry that will satisfy that these issues are being properly and fully addressed by everyone involved in football”.
A spokesman for the SFA said the organisation was “open-minded to an independent review but with the right scope and terms of reference”.
Iain Gray, for Labour, said the Government should be leading on the issue. He said he did not think an SFA inquiry would hold “public confidence”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article