Football’s Darkest Secret: a dark shadow over the ‘beautiful game’
Documentary about historical abuse in football revealed the shocking scale of the crimes

As a youth coach at Crewe Alexandra and Manchester City, Barry Bennell fed “dreams of being the next big star” to the boys in his care, said Kyle O’Sullivan in the Daily Mirror. A charming man with a “mesmerising” personality, he easily won the trust of parents, who’d think nothing of letting their sons stay overnight at his house. But Bennell’s charisma was a front: he was a predatory paedophile who “destroyed a succession of young lives” in a career lasting from the 1970s to the mid-1990s. And we now know he was one of many such men in English football. The horrifying scale of abuse over this period has been laid bare by a new BBC documentary, Football’s Darkest Secret, which follows the publication last week of an FA-commissioned report into historic abuse in the game.
The “landmark inquiry” shows what a “free run predatory abusers had”, said David Conn in The Guardian. It documents hundreds of cases of abuse, and a notable failure to act. Talent scout Frank Roper was at Blackpool FC for two decades, despite having multiple convictions for sexual assault on a minor to his name. Most victims never complained at the time, being “bullied, scared or shamed into silence”. But the game’s authorities were culpably slow to respond when the scale of the problem began to emerge. Bennell received his first conviction in 1995 – yet it took the FA another five years to establish anything like a proper safeguarding culture.
Daniel Gordon’s documentary was horrific to watch, said Carol Midgley in The Times. Seeing men in their 40s and 50s break down before the camera high-lighted the damage inflicted by Bennell and his ilk. The boys they abused suffered irreversible injuries that never healed no matter what they went on to achieve. Paul Stewart, one of Roper’s victims, said he’d gained no pleasure from a successful career with Man City, Tottenham and Liverpool. “Alone,” he said, “I was just dying inside.” The courage he and others have displayed in coming forward beats “anything you’d see on a football pitch”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
June 3 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Tuesday's political cartoons include RFK Jr. and the CDC, Elon Musk's DOGE exit, and Donald Trump versus academic freedom
-
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation: the group behind Gaza's controversial new aid programme
The Explainer Deadly shootings and chaotic scenes have been reported at aid sites after US group replaced UN humanitarian organisations
-
Is UK's new defence plan transformational or too little, too late?
Today's Big Question Labour's 10-year strategy 'an exercise in tightly bounded ambition' already 'overshadowed by a row over money'
-
2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup: fixtures, groups and UK TV coverage
feature Tournament in Australia and New Zealand will be broadcast live on the BBC and ITV
-
‘Genuine visionary’: is Pep Guardiola the greatest of all time?
feature Spaniard has now won two trebles following Man City’s Champions League triumph
-
Champions League final: Man City vs. Inter predictions and preview
feature Can Guardiola’s team finally win the Champions League and complete a historic treble?
-
Luton Town’s extraordinary ‘resurrection’
feature The Hatters complete a fairy tale rise from non-league to the Premier League
-
Man City: can ‘one of the best sides in history’ win the treble?
feature Guardiola’s Premier League champions have two more trophies in their sights
-
Michael Smith’s nine-darter: how darts fans reacted to the ‘greatest leg of all time’
feature It was a magical night for Smith as he beat Michael van Gerwen to win first world title
-
Where will Cristiano Ronaldo go next?
feature Portugal captain has been linked with a mega-money move to Saudi Arabia
-
Lionel Messi’s World Cup dream: it really is ‘now or never’ for Argentina’s captain
feature After lifting the Copa América in 2021, can he finally add a World Cup winners’ medal to his trophy cabinet?