Celia Brackenridge obituary

Campaigner against abuse and harassment in sport

Celia Brackenridge, who has died aged 67 from leukaemia, was an international sportswoman, a campaigner for women’s causes and an authority on child protection in sport. She carried out pioneering work on the sexual abuse and harassment of young athletes and footballers by their coaches in the 1980s and 90s. Her research led her further to examine the sexual, physical and emotional abuse of all athletes, her findings being met with total denial by the then sports establishment.

In 2001 she began working with the Football Association to assess the state of child protection at clubs, and to monitor a new FA strategy to protect junior players, but what was intended to be a £1m, five-year project was curtailed because of internal disputes in the Football Association and a disagreement between Adam Crozier (then FA chief executive) and the Premier League clubs, which objected to the project. Her work will live on because it is being incorporated into the current inquiry into abuse in football, led by Clive Sheldon QC.

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2KQTXK9