The former Crewe manager Dario Gradi should have his MBE taken away, according to an organisation set up by survivors of child sexual abuse in sport.
The Offside Trust, created to end abuse and support survivors, has written to the Cabinet Office after the publication of a review into historical sexual abuse in football and confirmation from the Football Association that Gradi is “effectively banned for life” from the sport.
The FA suggested an assessment concluded that Gradi, suspended since 2016, “could potentially cause or pose a risk of harm to children”. He was awarded an MBE in 1998 for services to football.
Clive Sheldon QC, the author of the independent review, found that Gradi “should have done more” to investigate concerns expressed about the serial abuser Barry Bennell but was not involved in a cover-up. The review also found that Gradi did not act inappropriately with any players.
Two of the abusers focused on in the review – Bennell at Crewe and Eddie Heath at Chelsea – were in post at those clubs in periods which coincided with Gradi being there.
Gradi was criticised for not doing more when abuse involving Heath was reported to him in 1975, and for failing to act in relation to allegations about Bennell, described as the “devil incarnate” by a judge who imprisoned him in 2018 for abuse against boys aged eight to 14. In the report, Sheldon states that Gradi “did not consider a person putting their hands down another’s trousers to be an assault”, something he changed his mind to accept when Sheldon insisted that it was assault.
“We’re writing to Cabinet Office to request forfeiture of the MBE,” the Offside Trust said. “We will be making similar requests to the PFA and Football Hall of Fame to revoke other honours.”
The Cabinet Office said it did not comment on individual forfeiture complaints but that each one “is acknowledged and carefully considered”.
Gradi was suspended by the FA in 2016 and three years later retired from his positions at Crewe. On Wednesday the FA’s chief executive, Mark Bullingham, told Sky Sports: “Dario Gradi is banned from football. Now that, unfortunately, I can’t go into further details on. There are a number of reasons why someone might be banned from football, but just to say that he is and will remain so. Effectively he’s banned for life.”
Polly Handford, the FA’s director of legal and governance, said: “I think where someone’s removed from football office for safeguarding reasons, that will be because we have we have seen that there’s been an assessment that that particular individual could potentially cause or pose a risk of harm to children.”
The 79-year-old Gradi was asked at his home by Sky News on Wednesday whether there was any comment he wanted to make after the publication of Sheldon’s report and whether he had any words for those who have been victims of historical sexual abuse in football. He replied: “No, I’ve nothing to say. I’m under instructions. Sorry.”
He told the Times on Wednesday he was unaware he had been suspended. “I didn’t know that had happened. I don’t know anything about that situation. All I would say is that I like working with kids, and I would never do anything to harm the kids I work with. But it’s best I don’t say anything else.”
Sheldon said overnight stays by boys were “normalised” at Crewe in a way which they were not elsewhere, with some boys staying at Gradi’s house. The report added there was no evidence Gradi acted inappropriately with boys on any of those visits or in any of his other interactions with them.
Sheldon said: “I felt that he was trying to give me, and did give me, truthful answers. He may have been vague about certain things but on the whole I felt he was genuine and was trying to help out. There were lots of rumours about Dario Gradi being overly close to young boys, and people were also complaining about Dario Gradi having boys staying over at his house. There is no evidence that Dario Gradi acted inappropriately with any of the boys who stayed at his house or any of the boys that he was working with.
“I think he thought that because he wasn’t doing anything wrong, that he was acting entirely innocently, well that must be the same with Bennell. I don’t think he could conceive that Bennell was behaving in a negative, inappropriate and abusive way to the boys because it was outside his own thinking.
“I say he should have done more. I say that he should have thought outside of himself, and asked really much greater questions about what was going on, and I think that should have been informed by what had taken place at Chelsea with Eddie Heath.”
Crewe said in a statement that made no mention of Gradi: “The club is truly sorry if there were in fact any warning signs that ought to have led the club to do more. Had the club had any suspicion or belief that Mr Bennell was committing acts of abuse, either before, during or after he left the club’s employment, the club would have informed the police immediately.
“The club wishes to make it absolutely clear that it sincerely regrets and is disgusted by the terrible crimes committed by Mr Bennell upon many young footballers over a significant number of years … The club continues to have the deepest sympathy for the victims and survivors of Mr Bennell.
“The club fully understands the additional hurt and trauma to the victims and survivors of Mr Bennell which has been caused by the fact that no one at the club was aware of the offences being committed upon them at the time. The club wholeheartedly regrets and is sorry to every survivor of abuse that it was unaware of Bennell’s offending.”