Academics studying abuse of children at sports clubs have warned against complacency.
A report by three researchers says publicity about allegations of historic abuse at football clubs has heightened awareness.
But the report also said the potential for abuse has also increased.
Researchers Jameel Hadi, a social work lecturer at Salford University, Natalia Farmer, a PhD social work student at Glasgow Caledonian University, and writer and broadcaster Chris Green say questions need to be asked about the “wider environment” in which children’s sport takes place.
“The recent disclosures of historical sexual abuse in professional football have led to heightened awareness of safeguarding within sport,” says the report, Changing the Game: The Invisible Child and the Culture of Abuse in Sport.
“However, the terms of the debate have been limited.”
It goes on: “Since elite academies were introduced in 1997, England’s professional clubs have been able to sign children from the age of nine-years-old to their academies and commonly trawl and recruit children as young as five-years-old.”
“Not only does this mean clubs coach far greater numbers of children - collectively some 10,000 a year from the ages of nine to 18 - but have them in the care for longer.
“Although the FA have implemented stringent child protection procedures within academies - indeed failure to adhere to safeguarding criteria can lead to clubs losing their licence to run an academy - the potential for abuse has increased hugely.”
Researchers say children continue not to reveal abuse until they grow up.
The report, published on academic website discoversociety.org, adds: “Questions ... need to be posed about the wider environment in which children’s sport takes place.
“This can include: the role of professional sport; the relationship between sexual abuse and emotional abuse; the invisibility of children in determining how they experience taking part and how this can lead to institutional silences resulting in a mismatch between what is known and what is openly debated.”
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