The situation of the abuse of young players: League and FA take no action

 

 

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By Tony Attwood

If you’ve been a long-term reader of Untold you may recall that we have often covered the issue of the lack of protection of young players at top clubs.  

In the past when issues of wrong-doing have arisen they have often focussed on the sexual abuse of youngsters, and that of course is incredibly serious, but there is another side to the scandal of the way youngsters are treated in clubs, and that is the way clubs can fail to meet their obligations to a young player who gets injured early on and as a result doesn’t make the grade.

Of course, most clubs recognise their responsibility and know that many of the youngsters they take on will not make it, but there are constant suggestions that sometimes the young players and their coaches are not given all the oversight we would expect.

Worse, it seems that when suggestions of something being seriously wrong do arise, no one wants to investigate.   The FA, the Premier League, the individual club, the police, everyone seems to want to point elsewhere when an investigation is required.   As a result, the conclusion has to be that youngsters training with and playing for the youth teams in professional clubs, have no protection.  They can be overplayed and played when injured, thus giving them lifetime injuries, and no one ever seems to be held to account for mistreatment.

Given that almost ten years ago revelations began to emerge, as ex-professionals started to speak about their being abused by coaches and scouts in ways ranging from sexual abuse to being played when injured, it seems extraordinary that nothing has happened to change the situation.

In looking at his issue Untold came across another point which appears to show (and “appears” is the right word here, because self-evidently Untold doesn’t have the manpower or authority to investigate; we can only report what we are told) that there are allegations of the tapping up of and document falsification relating to young players, still circulating in the football world.  Again the media don’t seem to want to know about this.

What seems to have happened in the past (and given the lack of interest in sorting the matter out by the authorities it would seem quite possible that it is still be happening) is that major clubs can tap up a young player and offer inducements to the parents of the player for the youngster to sign, but then if the young player doesn’t live up to expectations or becomes injured, they back out of their obligations, knowing that the parent hasn’t the knowledge or finance to take the club to court for breach of contract or lack of suitable medical care.

In the meanwhile in such circumstances, the young player himself often doesn’t want to make a fuss because he is still desperate to play professional football.

Certainly this year it would appear that a Premier League club has been accused of document falsification in a case involving the tapping up of a young player.   Now I must stress here that Untold doesn’t remotely have the resources to investigate the rights and wrongs of such a case, but certainly, the accusations against the club have been made.  And from what I can understand neither the Football League nor the Football Association are willing even to investigate the case.

Now of course the League and FA can say, this is a matter for the courts, but it does seem to me that given that football likes to portray itself as an organisation that can run its own affairs, when a serious allegation of this sort is made, and supporting evidence is put forward, the FA and/or League should investigate in a way that is both transparent and fair.

Football of course is based on documents relating to the status of each player in relation to his/her club, and the suggestion that a document could be falsified or go missing is a very major issue.   Therefore I would immediately expect that the FA or the League would investigate, and yet as far as I can see in the case of such allegations they won’t do anything.

There are also allegations circulating that the club that was named in this case then offered to pay the school fees of the child at a private school, if the parents would then withdraw the complaint against the club.  There are also allegations that the club involved was engaged in tapping up the player from the lower league club that he was with at the time.  Again of course I can’t verify such claims, but I would expect the FA to do so, and issue details of their investigations.  But they don’t or won’t.

Now certainly it would seem that the league has been aware of this issue in the past because some nine years ago the League changed its rules and prohibited clubs from paying the private school fees of academy players.   But there is still one weapon that clubs can use against any parent who is concerned about the way a club is behaving, and that is to hold on to a player’s registration and not release him, so he cannot sign for another club, thus effectively ending his career.

The current ongoing case which I can’t discuss in more detail because it is ongoing, is thus starting to highlight the lack of accountability there is in relation to clubs and their dealings with young players – especially those who are injured while signed up with a league club.

Within these cases what we see are allegations of medical negligence and the “loss” (or perhaps destruction) of records.   And it was in relation to such suggestions that some four years ago Untold first suggested that all players’ medical records should be duplicated, with one set held by the club and one by the FA.   As far as I can ascertain the FA has failed even to contemplate such a development, which means that in cases where medical negligence is claimed, clubs can still simply say the medical records are missing.   And certainly in one case I have come across there is a clear suggestion (of which of course I can’t independently verify) that medical records were destroyed to cover up what is alleged as medical negligence.

And it is the failure of the League and FA to act on this most simple issue of keeping copies of medical records that brings me back to this issue time and again.  There is absolutely no reason why clubs should not be instructed to register all players’ medical records with an independent body, and then ensure they are updated at all times.  This would resolve disputes such as the ongoing one about one young player not being properly assessed and treated and thus being left unable to play professionally.

All I can do is repeat the questions I have raised before.   Why does the media not want to know about this scandal?  Why has nothing been done to secure medical records and make sure they are not lost?  Why after all this time are there still cases continuing involving the proper treatment of youngsters?

The fact that these issues are still with us can only continue to raise suspicions.