Scottish Football Association 'should hold abuse inquiry'

Gordon Smith said the football authorities needed to look at how they responded to allegations

A former chief executive of the Scottish Football Association (SFA) has called for an inquiry into historical sexual abuse.

Gordon Smith told the BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme it should look at how clubs and national bodies responded to allegations.

His comments came after Partick Thistle confirmed that a physiotherapist was dismissed from Firhill in 1992.

The club said it acted immediately after allegations of abuse were made.

It said it had now informed the police and the football authorities.

'A disgrace'

Mr Smith said: "There should be an inquiry, an inquiry into anybody who knew anything about this sort of thing.

"If this was happening at a club, what action did they take?

"We're now finding out some of the cases down in England where the club tried to hush the situation, even paid a player money to not say anything about it."

The English Football Association has commissioned an independent investigation into the way it dealt with abuse allegations.

Partick Thistle said the police and the football authorities have now been informed

Partick Thistle have not named the physiotherapist accused of carrying out abuse or made clear if he was reported to the authorities at the time.

He has subsequently been named as John Hart, who died in 1995.

In a statement, the north Glasgow club said: "As far as Thistle's current management can ascertain, no other allegations were made to the club at that time with regard to him or any other employee.

"The club has contacted the SFA and Police Scotland to advise them of what they know to date and will fully comply with any investigation."

Gordon Smith said any inquiry set up by the football authorities would have to consider three groups of people.

"Obviously there's people who were committing the offences," he said. "They are a disgrace and hopefully they're going to be found out legally and charged.

"There's the kids who suffered from it who are now adults who obviously got great psychological and traumatic effects of it.

"The third element is the people who maybe knew something about this going on and didn't do anything about it. Although they're maybe not legally culpable they're certainly morally culpable because they didn't do anything about it."