Women in Football claims that the FA have known about the allegations currently facing former England Women’s coach, Mark Sampson, since 2013.
It was announced on Wednesday evening that Sampson had stood down as England manager, a role he’d occupied since 2013, after allegations of “clear evidence of inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour by a coach” during his time at Bristol Academy came to light.
Now, Women in Football, an organisation that aims to support the women in and around the sport, claims that the FA have known about said allegations for a long time and question how this was allowed to happen.
“WiF understands that questions over Sampson’s suitability for the role were flagged to the FA as early as 2013 during the recruitment process,” Women in Football said in a statement, reports the Guardian. “The safeguarding investigation of 2014, Sampson being sent on an education course in 2015, Eniola Aluko’s complaint in 2016 and Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson’s Duty of Care report published in April 2017 were all missed opportunities for the governing body to more closely examine the issues.
“Indeed it is unfathomable that an England manager could be sent on a course to emphasise the appropriate boundaries between coach and player, as a direct result of a safeguarding investigation, and not be subject to any sort of due diligence. WiF routinely receive complaints of discrimination and abuse from women working in football. We rely on the governing body’s ability to properly investigate these issues in a transparent and competent manner.”
The FA claim that they didn’t believe Sampson to be a risk when they carried out a 12-month investigation following reports back in 2014. However, as Women in Football says, the FA may have been aware of these issues as early as 2013.
Considering Sampson was given the England job in December of that year, these allegations are hugely unsettling as it raises questions of why he was handed the role in the first place.
Unfortunately, this seems to be the tip of the iceberg. However, following Eniola Aluko’s complaint of racial prejudice and bullying against Sampson back in 2016, which was also swept under the rug, it seems that that more stories of this nature could be set to come out.