Football's child sex abuse scandal: Dario Gradi should lose MBE, says Offside Trust
- Published
Dario Gradi was the manager of Crewe from 1983 to 2007
A support organisation set up by survivors of childhood sexual abuse in football has asked the Cabinet Office to strip Dario Gradi of his MBE.
On Wednesday an independent review found that the former Crewe Alexandra manager "should have done more" to investigate concerns about paedophile Barry Bennell when he worked at the club as a youth coach, but that he was not involved in a cover-up.
The Football Association confirmed that Gradi - who has always denied wrongdoing - has been suspended from football since 2016 "for safeguarding reasons".
That led to the Offside Trust to request the removal of Gradi's MBE, which he was made in 1998 for services to football.
"We will be making similar requests to the Professional Footballers' Association and Football Hall of Fame to revoke other honours," the organisation said.
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In his landmark report, Clive Sheldon QC also criticised Gradi for not doing more when a claim of abuse by Chelsea's former chief scout Eddie Heath was reported to him while assistant manager at the club in 1975.
The report states that Gradi "did not consider a person putting their hands down another's trousers to be an assault", but that he changed his mind after Sheldon insisted it was.
Gradi, 79, was suspended in 2016 pending an FA investigation and retired from his position as director of football at Crewe three years later.
Sheldon said that when working with the club's former youth coach Bennell, Gradi "was not aware of any allegations of abuse by Bennell and did not see anything done by Bennell.
"But what he did know was rumours about Bennell and he did know that boys were regularly staying over with Bennell, and I've concluded that Dario Gradi ought to have monitored what was going on, and he ought to have spoken to the boys who were staying with Bennell to see if they were OK. Had he done that it may well be that they would have told him of the abuse that they were suffering."
Bennell - who worked at Crewe in the 80s and 90s - is serving a 34-year sentence after being convicted of child sexual abuse five times.
FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said on Wednesday that Gradi was "effectively banned for life" from football, but could not go into the reasons.
However, the FA's director of legal and governance Polly Handford said it was "for safeguarding reasons" but that was "as far as we can go".
Gradi has declined to comment
Crewe have reiterated they were not aware of any sexual abuse by Bennell until 1994 when he was first convicted of sexual assault, and did not receive a single complaint about sexual abuse by him.
However, the Sheldon report said: "It is likely that three directors of Crewe Alexandra FC discussed concerns about Bennell which hinted at his sexual interest in children.
"There is no evidence that the advice of a senior police officer to the club's former chairman to keep a 'watching brief' on Bennell was heeded."