A child sexual abuse scandal involving the abuse of young players at football clubs in the United Kingdom began in mid-November 2016. The revelations began when former professional footballers waived their rights to anonymity and talked publicly about being abused by former coaches and scouts in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. This led to a surge of further allegations, as well as allegations that some clubs had covered them up.
Echoing similar revelations in the 1990s, the initial 2016 allegations centred on abuse of young players at Crewe Alexandra and Manchester City due to the clubs' associations with Barry Bennell (previously convicted of sexual abuse offences in the US, in 1995, and in the UK, in 1998) who, on 29 November 2016, was charged with new offences. Allegations were also made against George Ormond, a former Newcastle United youth coach and scout (who also had previous convictions), former Chelsea scout Eddie Heath, and former Southampton and Peterborough coach Bob Higgins. In early December 2016, allegations about former youth coaches and scouts in Northern Ireland and Scotland also started to emerge.
Within a month of the initial reporting, the Football Association (FA), the Scottish Football Association (SFA), several football clubs and over 20 UK police forces had established various inquiries and investigations and over 350 alleged victims had come forward. By July 2018, 300 suspects were reported to have been identified by 849 alleged victims, with 2,807 incidents involving 340 different clubs. By the end of 2021, 16 men had been charged with historical sexual abuse offences, 15 of whom were tried. Fourteen – Bennell, Ormond, Higgins, William Toner, Michael Coleman, Jim McCafferty, Robert Smith, James Torbett, Gerald King, Frank Cairney, Norman Shaw, David Daniel Hayes, Dylan Lamb and Geoff Broome – were convicted; all, except King (given a three-year probation order) were jailed. Paul McCann was cleared. Michael Carson died by suicide before his trial opened. Other allegations involved individuals who had died prior to the revelations, who had died before charges could be brought or who were unfit to stand trial. In addition to criminal prosecutions, civil actions for damages were also instigated against clubs including Celtic, Crewe Alexandra, Manchester City and Newcastle United.
In July 2018, the FA's independent inquiry was said to have found no evidence of an institutional cover-up or of a paedophile ring operating within football, but intended publication of its report in September 2018 was delayed, potentially by up to a year, pending Higgins' retrial and further charges against Bennell (tried in 2020). The SFA's enquiry report, making 97 recommendations for improvement, was published in February 2021, and the FA's Sheldon report was published on 17 March 2021. While awareness of child abuse had previously been low, Sheldon said the FA was culpable of "institutional failure" in delaying the introduction of safeguards after 1995. Sheldon also criticised failures at eight professional clubs: Aston Villa, Chelsea, Crewe Alexandra, Manchester City, Newcastle United, Peterborough, Southampton and Stoke City. The FA undertook to implement all 13 of the report's recommendations about improving safeguarding measures at clubs.