- How Arsenal is now the model for other clubs – but some still can’t get it right
- Why it is really important for Arsenal to stay well away from the Club World Cup
By Tony Attwood
There are three constant background stories in football. One is the story you read in the paper about clubs pursuing success by bringing forth highly gifted young players who can make a huge difference to a team, and become national idols.
But the other two stories don’t appear in the media. One of these is that of managers callously playing injured youngsters and allowing, or even partaking in, wholesale bullying and abuse of young players. Not in every club of course, but (it is alleged) in some (although indeed even if it was only in one club that surely would be one too many).
Such affairs are not ones that the media will cover quite simply because reporting of such incidents upsets the prime narrative; the narrative being that in English league football, everything is good.
In this world view, clubs can make mistakes by buying the wrong players, or using the wrong tactics, or employing the wrong manager (and we know this because the journalists tell us what the manager should have done). But this view also includes the vision that there is no place for the notion that there is something deeply wrong with the way some clubs treat young players. Just as there is no place for the view that there is something wrong with refereeing in the Premier League.
Now we do know that a few men have been arrested, charged and imprisoned over crimes against boys in football clubs. But what you may not know is that unreported in the media, there is on social media a regular reporting of abuse of and bad treatment of children. The media won’t touch it, but it is there being talked about by parents, day after day.
Now of course, I can’t publish the details either, for I know that if I tried to make specific accusations public, the legal system would be used to ensure that I ran out of money long, long before any case saw the light of day in court.
Yet the existence of some (perhaps only a few, but still some) parents who simply cannot tell the stories of what happened to their children in relation to football clubs remains one of the dark secrets of English football.
Of course, as Arsenal supporters, we celebrate our former academy players, and I am sure the majority of these guys never suffered any problems of maltreatment or abuse. But across football, there are stories of players who clearly were maltreated. Yet the existence of reports is an issue remaining forever hidden.
Which for me at least, even if no one else, then raises the issue of what else is being hidden by football. Certainly, one issue we’ve raised time and again, and which the media refuse to engage with, is the strange issue of the very low number of referees that are used in the Premier League. We’ve long advocated that no referee should oversee matches involving the same club more than twice in a season. Why is this issue, along with that of child abuse in football, never mentioned in the media?
Last season for example Anthony Taylor refereed five Arsenal games, and Arsenal only won one of them That was on 30 November when Arsenal beat West Ham away. Now the fact that West Ham only won five of their 19 home games last season shows that result to be very unexpected. Add the fact that their average number of goals per home game was 1.21 last campaign, but in this match they got two such goals, again is at the very least interesting.
The fact that Arsenal let in 0.89 goals per match away from home, and yet let in two goals away to West Ham, again suggests something odd was happening.
Of course, I am absolutely not alleging that Mr Taylor fixed the match, because of course, I have no evidence of any malpractice in that game. Rather, I am saying that the fact that Arsenal let in two away to West Ham when Arsenal conceded so few goals away from home and West Ham scored so few at home, is somewhat more than slightly odd and is heading toward the category of being “suspicious”.
Now, there can always be slightly odd or even suspicious outcomes of matches in football – we all know that – but the level of suspicious events seems rather high. And when it happens in a world in which there are real concerns about the abuse of young players in clubs (which is never mentioned in the media), it is legitimate to start to wonder what other dubious activities might be going on.
Certainly, solutions are easy to find. For example, all clubs should be forced to employ a couple of totally independent overseers of young players and these overseers should move on to another club every two months. Second, each referee should only oversee each club once at home and once away in a season, rather than in the case above five times, and with these five games giving results totally out of keeping with the rest of Arsenal’s season.
Premier League football is rolling in money and could easily afford these two reforms. The fact that it refuses even to talk about either of them gives ground for suspicion that those in charge know that things are not right, and simply don’t want the publicity any change might bring.
Mr. Taylor, the referee, denied us 5 points last season, as a minimum, from what I clearly recall.
… “30 November when Arsenal beat West Ham away. Now the fact that West Ham only won five of their 19 home games last season shows that result to be very unexpected. ”
Read this sentence out loud, and see if you can spot the obvious error.
I recall the game and how Arsenal were 4-0 up after 36 minutes, before West Ham scored two quick goals late in the 1st half, one a spectacular free kick on 40′ by Emerson, as Arsenal seemed to be heading for half time, and momentum swung (Albeit briefly) to the home team.
You also omit the fact that Arsenal were awarded two penalties in that first half by Andy Taylor, which is not just well over expectation, but some may use the word ‘suspicious’, as would be the 4 yellow cards given to West Ham players Vs just 1 for Arsenal.
As human beings, we are all susceptible to ‘ bias’ and using some facts and not others is a common manifestation of this phenomenon.
Addressing the idea of ‘abuse’ in football academies.
Firstly, the UK recognises 10 types of abuse, so which are you referring to?
Where does the act of ‘abuse’ occur?
Is abuse in the eye of the recipient or the giver ? or in the eye of the observer?
Is anyone abused if they do not experience being abused?
Unfortunately, some form abuse is unavoidable in almost every relationship and goes on in every walk of life, not just football.
Both my comments removed? Why?
In relation to your questions, we have published a range of articles on this subject over the years.
Your comment was not removed but was simply waiting for one of us to approve it, and I suspect you are perhaps not familiar with how blogs work. We’ve been running for around 15 years and as such attract a lot of spam comments. In order to stop these appeaing we have various steps in place including checking many of the comments that arrive before they are posted. We are also regularly under attack both from advertising organisations trying to sneak their adverts in, and from those who disagree with our points of view.
You are of course free to comment as you wish, but as publishers we are free to decide what we publish and how we run the site. After all we have no idea who you are.
Blimey! Abuse is generally considered a blanket legal term for a number of offences, some of which may not even be objected to by the recipient.