20 clubs and nearly 500 youth football coaches suspended over disclosure checks

Hundreds of Scottish youth football coaches and officials have been suspended for failing to complete comprehensive background checks. Some 20 youth football clubs from across Scotland have been barred from participating in their leagues for disclosure failures under the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme. And Tam Baillie, Scotland`s Commissioner for Children and Young People, blamed a “lack of funding and engagement” for the Scottish Youth Football Association (SYFA) finding itself “effectively run on a shoestring”. SYFA chief executive David Little told MSPs that a backlog of vetting through the PVG scheme had been completed but that 488 people have been automatically debarred from youth football for not submitting an application to the Disclosure Scotland process. Those now suspended until they complete the checks would have had access to children only under supervision from PVG-approved officials, Mr Little told members of the Scottish Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee. There are about 15,000 volunteer coaches and officials who help run 39 SYFA leagues and coach 60,000 young players. The SYFA set a deadline of February 28 to clear a backlog of about 950 applications but Mr Little said a further 1,170 are now being processed after an influx in applications for next season. He added: “The backlog that existed has now been cleared. “That process has now been completed and people who were not compliant have been dealt with.” Asked by committee member Clare Haughey how many people had been placed on an automatic suspension for not submitting a PVG application, Mr Little said: “In respect of the backlog, 488. “They are precautionary suspended, that means they are completely debarred from participation in any football under the jurisdiction of the SYFA.” When asked how long they were coaching in the SYFA before they were suspended, Mr Little said: “That would vary from official to official. “They would have had access (to children) only via supervision.” Mr Baillie told the BBC`s Good Morning Scotland programme that a lack of funding and engagement from the Scottish Football Association (SFA) was contributing to the problem. He said: “What we`ve got is an organisation which is effectively run on a shoestring, trying to cope with an enormous number of PVG checks. “I understand that they`re now in discussion with Disclosure Scotland and I welcome those moves, but you need to take a step back here in terms of overall governance of our game and question why the SYFA have got so few resources to administer what is an important part of [football]. “The PVG checks are only as good as the information that is fed into them. There are key things about the culture and the approach that we take to our children and young people. I`ve been quite heavily involved with the SFA and professional football clubs and I`ve found that wanting, to be honest. “The higher up the levels that you go in football, the more money is the driving force and, in my experience, that`s at the expense of the best interests of children and young people.” The Holyrood session on child protection in sport follows allegations of historical abuse in football. Police Scotland is investigating and the SFA has set up an independent review. Last month, Disclosure Scotland, which runs the PVG scheme, told MSPs the SYFA turned down an offer of help to clear the backlog of checks. Mr Little said the help offered “was not the assistance that we required”. SFA chief executive Stewart Regan told the committee on Tuesday (March 7) his organisation had also offered to help. He said: “Back in February 2015, we offered support on child protection matters to the SYFA which was rejected at the time in favour of further financial support.” Mr Little said: “I think at this particular stage we’re trying to get the ability to bring more volunteers in to do more of the work. “It would certainly assist if we had the ability to increase staff. The help that was on offer was