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The Football Association has promised it will compensate players who were sexually abused if the governing body is found to have failed to protect them from predatory paedophiles. With at least eight police forces around the country actively investigating new allegations of historic abuse, the FA has asked Kate Gallafent QC to lead an internal review of its response to allegations of sexual abuse more than 20 years ago. Speaking to reporters at Wembley, FA chairman Greg Clarke said the terms of reference for Gallafent's review will be discussed at a board meeting on Wednesday and her report will be published "as soon as possible," no matter how bad it makes the FA look. But with the number of clubs and players involved in the scandal growing each day, Clarke admitted he was concerned about the prospect of the FA facing a significant compensation bill but said there would be no attempt to avoid responsibility. "I'm worried about that but only from the point of view that every pound that goes out in compensation is a pound that won't go into an artificial grass pitch in a deprived community in the UK," Clarke said. "This isn't a question of money coming out of shareholders' dividends -- all the FA's money goes into the game. "But the facts will take us where the facts take us. If there are legal consequences, we'll deal with it. We won't, in any way, conceal the facts to protect ourselves. "I don't think we should get hung up on the compensation. [It] will be a consequence of the facts as they emerge. If people have legal rights, they will pursue them." Clarke described the alarming picture of complacency that is emerging in regard to child protection two decades ago as a "societal failure" that affected all sections of society. He said sport "woke up" when former British Olympic swimming coach Paul Hickson was convicted of multiple sex offences in 1995 and outlined the numerous initiatives the FA has made since then, including a complete overhaul of football's safeguarding rules. Clarke did not express an opinion on whether a public inquiry would be needed to uncover the scale of sport's problems, but said Gallafent's review was an example of the FA taking the initiative. While acknowledging that the various police investigations "must take precedence" and the FA cannot risk "tainting evidence" by speaking to victims itself, Gallafent can uncover who knew what at the FA, when they knew it and what they did with the information. He stressed that Gallafent was a truly independent voice -- having taken cases for and against the FA in the past -- who also has a strong track record in child protection issues. She will also have a free hand to make recommendations. One thing she will not have, though, is the power to compel officials who have retired from the game to cooperate. Clarke, however, said he would be willing to shame people into talking, if that was required. He also said he found the allegation that clubs may have tried to pay off players who complained of abuse in the past in return for their silence as "morally repugnant." The FA's head of equality and safeguarding, Sue Ravenlaw, added this could also be illegal. Clarke could not put a time-frame on when Gallafent's report would be finished but said the FA would publish as much of it as it was allowed by the police and the rights of victims to confidentiality. Having described his "revulsion and horror" at what he has heard and read of abuse in the past, Clarke said it was right that the FA "was in the spotlight" as the governing body and had an obligation to make sure this never happened again. "Has the problem gone away? No. You have to be paranoid when it comes child safeguarding and assume it's a threat," he said. "If one child is failed, the FA has failed. Our job is to get better every year at protecting children."
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