Southampton acknowledge ‘complete institutional failure’ over sexual abuse of academy players
New York TimesA damning new report has found that Southampton failed to respond to warnings regarding Bob Higgins, which led to the disgraced former youth football coach being able to continue sexually abusing boys for many more years. Southampton Football Club admitted to a “complete institutional failure” and said those employed at the time, including board members and managers, should have known and stopped the abuse from taking place. The Barnardo’s review concludes with a series of damning indictments, most notably that Southampton’s board of directors “minimised and disregarded significant concerns about Higgins” and “persistently failed in exercising a duty of care to boys”, which “left them and other boys vulnerable to ongoing abuse by Higgins”. Ultimately, the review says the actions of Southampton’s board members led to many more years of sexual abuse carried out by Higgins. Southampton admitted “complete institutional failure” and have held their hands up to everything levelled at them in the Barnardo’s review.
History of this topic
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