- Has child abuse in football clubs truly stopped, or was there a threat made…
- English refereeing still out of step with rest of Europe
By Tony Attwood
We have often suggested here that there is an undercurrent within football in which many clubs are accused of not taking allegations of abuse of youngsters seriously enough. Rather than detailed investigations being carried out and criminal activity being reported to the police, those involved are “moved on” to other jobs within the club, and everyone stays quiet.
We have also of late noted that the bodies that run football in England – the FA, and the Leagues, the bodies set up to rule on disputes, and the Independent Football Ombudsman regularly claim that matters brought, to their attention by for example, parents, who claim that a child has suffered abuse at a club, are told that the organisation in question is not set up to handle their particular type of dispute.
This is a matter in which anger has been rising, and so although the headline “Man Utd sued over ‘sexual and physical abuse’ claim as club alleged to have failed victim,” which appeared in the Sun has taken some by surprise. Yet I suspect there could well be a vast number of parents who will recognise at once what is going on. Not particularly about the details of these allegations, but about the failure of football to have proper procedures for investigating such allegations. In this case, these are allegations that a former caretaker at the club subjected a youth to “sexual and physical abuse when he was a child.”
Now we have touched on this before, not because I have come across any allegations relating to Arsenal, but because it seems a perfect example of an area of football that remains “untold” but should be revealed. If you agree, you might find our last article on the topic Has child abuse in football clubs truly stopped, or was there a threat made… also to be of interest.
So now we have the news that a High Court personal injury claim has been lodged against a former caretaker at Manchester United. Of course, I have no insight into the merits of the claim, and am not assuming any form of guilt. But rather, I am reflecting on the fact that after a long period of hearing allegations concerning the activities of people at all levels in clubs in relation to children, there does seem to be a determination among some people to bring these affairs to light, even if the media likes to keep it all quiet. The man accused in this case worked, according to the newspaper, as “kitman, groundsman and caretaker”. He is accused of “historical sexual abuse.”
And to be clear, no action is being taken against the man who, it is allege,d was involved in committing the abuse, as he is now deceased, but the action is being taken against the club for failing to protect the child.
Now it seems to me (and this is a personal reflection) that this is the sort of action that clubs are particularly concerned about, since it does put the focus on the duty of the club to deal properly with the behaviour of their employees, something that (again it seems to me) they have been incredibly reluctant to do.
And now it is also being reported that back in 2016, a number of singularly unpleasant allegations were made against the same man, with many young players expressing the view that he was not a safe person to be alone with. And it does appear that in 2021 there was an independent review into the allegations led, according to the newspaper by Clive Sheldon QC, which mentioned allegations which “concerned a caretaker at the club, who is now deceased.”
According to the Sun, the report stated, “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.
