By Tony Attwood
I really can’t recall when we first raised the issue of the mistreatment of youngsters by League clubs, including the fact that there seemed to be no one in charge of making sure that they were not played when injured, not promised the earth in terms of salaries, abused, discarded etc etc.
Of course, there have been a few court cases since, and some clubs have had their reputations harmed considerably by being found to have housed criminals in their youth training departments.
And there was a time when it seemed that what was supposed to be a fan-led review into football governance might actually make a difference by bringing in an independent regulator who might look after needs of youngsters who are promised the earth, and then cast aside in favour of another youngster, who is promised the earth….
But nothing much has happened since to protect young players in clubs, except that the Football Governance Bill appears to be heading toward its royal assent. Mind you there have been getting on for 100 MPs voting against it, which I guess tells us something.
What you won’t know (unless you are active in the field of following up on the issue of how children are treated by clubs), is that there is increasing activity among the parents of children who feel they have been misled and misused within football clubs.
Of course these parents who are trying to protect their children, suffer a major disadvantage for it is generally their word against the club’s word – and the clubs may bring in high-profile lawyers who may say, if you take this football club on with these accusations, we will win, we will claim costs against you, and you will be bankrupted for life.
The problem is that any legal battle between a parent and a club is unbalanced: the clubs will spend anything to protect their image. And the situation has got worse since professional football knows that every victory in a child abuse case against a league club damages English football as a whole – and they will do anything and everything possible to stop that. The Premier League is the market leader. Nothing must affect its brand image.
Hence, the notion of football monitoring itself is totally flawed. To the world at large, the Premier League is football at its best – it is everything that is right with football. The allegation that underneath, this is far from how it is, cannot be allowed to be heard. Thus, every single allegation by a parent that suggests that someone training children has not worked with that child’s best interests, can never be allowed to be heard. Which is why there is nothing within the Football Regulator’s remit about protecting children from abuse.
Instead, it is, as the Guardian said recently, “about recognising the historical and current contribution of all professional clubs in English football, from the Premier League to the National League.” What the regulator ensures is not that children are not abused or indeed that any other appalling crimes happen, but that the clubs and their current structures survive.
Now, of course, I can’t prove this – I just listen to and read the points put to me as someone who has written about child abuse in football in the past. All I can do is say, when the regulator comes along, let’s get these accusations in front of him, and see if he takes any of these points up.
At the moment, instead of talking about stopping child abuse within clubs, the talk is about reducing club losses to stop “distortion in the market.” There is no talk of protecting children, but plenty about the dangers of wage inflation. What talk of “safeguards” there is, is not talk of protecting children, but of keeping the leagues competitive.
The media are, of course, part of this. They know that if they were to start investigating a club for the way it treats under-16-year-olds, the club might cancel press passes, and approach any media outlets who have not touched the story with offers of exclusive interviews with players and managers. In short, “leave aside the dodgy stuff, and we’ll give you some coverage the fans want to read.”
And please do note, even the watered-down bill that is making its way through Parliament, and which contains no protection for children, has been criticised as being the first step toward government control of the “beautiful game.”
But it is not remotely that. It is a major step to ensuring that no one but no one can ever raise any questions about what is going on in the background; about the way children are treated, the promises made and broken, and the like.
But as ever, we come back to the same question: if there is nothing to hide in that regard, why not have a regulator who can receive complaints from parents about the way their sons or daughters have been treated, and investigate fully?
Quite simply, why is there not an independent regulator that parents can contact to say, “Can you look at the behaviour of X in club Y in relation to under-16-year-olds?”
But no, even in a form that is so watered down it probably has fish living in it, the new act offers nothing to protect children from abusers and mismanagers, whose only interest is in a victory in the next game, rather than the well-being of the players.
According to the Guardian’s article, “Whatever your politics, this should be regarded as a proud moment. It is an example of what politics can do at its best – listening, responding and building something in the public interest.”
And that really is the greatest tragedy. The new system is being sold as a major change for the good, when in fact it is a cover-up, suggesting that actually, the only problem was clubs getting into debt.
But there is one move that those of us who have tried, each in our own way, to protect children from abuse can make.
The regulator will have 18 months after the bill’s royal assent to produce a state of the game report. Much focus will be on how much the Premier League is doing in sharing its money with the Football League – and given that no one wants to give money away, it is likely nothing will happen.
This is the time when everyone who has come across situations in which children have been abused or misused by professional clubs can make their reports to the regulator, and make sure that the media get copies as well.
Because the regulator, David Kogan, will have little to do, in my view, because I doubt that the Premier League clubs will offer to give away much, he surely can be pushed into looking into allegations of abuse of children within football clubs.
This is the moment when every parent ever worried about how a football club has treated her/his child can make a report and have a fairly good chance of it being read – and (radical though I know this sounds) have it acted upon.
