Manchester United have been accused of failing to protect a claimant from sexual abuse by former employee Billy Watts in a High Court legal case.
Watts, who died in 2009, undertook a number of jobs at United’s training ground during the 1980s, including caretaker, groundsman and kit man.
He was the subject of internal disciplinary action in 2009 and was subsequently moved away from their training base at The Cliff in Salford.
The claimant cannot be named for legal reasons and it is not clear whether he was an academy player at the club.
‘Manchester United failed to protect the claimant from abuse while he was under the club’s care and supervision,’ say lawyers at Simpson Millar, who filed the civil claim last week.
Kate Hall, Abuse Law Expert at Simpson Millar, said: ‘Our client has shown enormous courage in coming forward after so many years. He, like many survivors, has had to relive incredibly painful memories in order to seek justice.
Manchester United have been sued over a historic ‘sexual and physical abuse’ allegation and have refused to comment
‘While Manchester United contributed to the Sheldon Review, its approach to this legal claim has been disappointing. Survivors deserve more than sympathy—they deserve meaningful engagement and accountability.’
In their statement, Simpson Millar accused the Watts of subjecting their claimant to ‘sexual and physical abuse when he was a child’ during the 1980s.
Manchester United declined to comment.
The Sheldon Review was an independent report commissioned by the Football Association in 2016 to investigate historical child sex abuse in the English game between 1970 and 2025. The report was published in 2021.
Watts was featured in United’s official yearbook in 1988 with his staff profile reading: ‘We’ve never been able to find out just what Billy does! Suffice to say that he always seems to be busy and is quite the fixture now at The Cliff, our main training ground.’
United submitted relevant information to the Sheldon Review in accordance with a request for each club in the Premier League and Football League to report any complaints or concerns fielded that ‘expressed to, or held by your club, in relation of child abuse’.
Watts was not named in the review, but it cited multiple allegations against a ‘caretaker at [United], who is now deceased’.
The report said: ‘The club was made aware in 2016 of allegations that in the 1980s the caretaker had made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature, physically pulled an individual into an office against his will, followed an individual into a sauna at the training ground and wrestled with him,” the report read.
‘There was also an allegation that the caretaker had tried to touch another individual inappropriately in the showers; that the caretaker was referred to by youth team players as a “pervert”. There was a further allegation that the caretaker had tried to touch another boy, and when confronted had said that “I’m only messing, shut up”.
‘The club referred the matter to the FA in 2016. The club has discovered that there was an investigation into the caretaker in the 1980s (not related to these particular allegations), and he was redeployed from the club’s training ground to the club’s stadium. It is not known what the reason was for his redeployment.’
In response to the allegations emerging publicly about Watts in 2019, United said at the time: ‘We have cooperated fully with the Sheldon Review in an effort to make sure we were as comprehensive on this important matter as we could be.
‘This involved conducting multiple interviews as part of our wide-ranging enquiries pursuant to the review. These included a former employee who had conducted the disciplinary process against the former caretaker in the 1980s and other current and former employees who worked at the club in the 70s and 80s.
‘All interviewees provided their full cooperation and information relating to the former caretaker has been included in Manchester United’s submissions to the review.
‘Identifying facts from historical allegations is never an easy process and their report will include any issues relating to Manchester United that are considered relevant by the review team.’
