Footballs Darkest Secret

Very.

 

Can’t believe you’re asking that question.

 

Thankfully now there is much more stringent safeguarding put in place and children are listened to.

 

I think you might have misread the room.

 

How so? I'm merely pointing out that the Beeb gave 2 hours to someone who lied about abuse and that his actions most probably stopped others coming forward. It should have been a side note on operations which actually got historic and current abusers put behind bars.

Looks at the lengths these abusers went to, to stop the truth coming, add into that the appalling behaviour of club officials.

What these kids, now grown men have gone through is horrific. I just want more on the telly and in the media about the victims and survivors, so to make it easier for anyone suffering abuse to come forward (and feel confident they'll be believed).

 

I ask the question because up to recently clubs have put the name/reputation of the club and support for the staff member before the well-being of the abused player - This was clear from the recent 3 part documentary.

Now 800 victims from 342 clubs have come forward as victims of abuse -- I can't believe that no one at theses clubs knew what was going on -- by keeping quiet the club protected the club not the victim.
To answer my own question I would 100% support the player - but my guess is a lot of supporters would not - they would support the club.

 

Definitely will have been rife in football as in any walk of life where adults had unsupervised access to children. I used to train at Barnsley on a Wednesday night with their youth setup, I wasn’t in the elite group, the guy who coached them I got told a few years later was done for it, this was back in the early 80s.
Unfortunately at the time there wasn’t a lot of awareness about how paedos operate. Now we have the knowledge and processes to try and stop them from accessing kids. It’s sad but you have to imagine living in a world whereby all you care about is getting at kids, that you will do anything and become anyone for this one goal. Because the rest of us don’t think that way it’s hard to imagine, but there you go. like I say any interface between adults and children you’ll find them trying to get in, people blame whichever institution is involved, scouts, church, schools, gymnasiums, youth clubs, etc, etc. It’s really a past collective failure of society. What’s interesting is whether all the changes that have now been made to recruitment and child welfare has made the difference, I suspect it’s made it a lot harder in most cases and therefore kept more children safe.

 

First part briefly showed a picture of Gary Speed, but said no more. It was a difficult watch, but essential.

 

I’ve had a look on Sky, and there’s episodes 1&3........ but no 2,

 

can not watch stuff like this, bad enough knowing it went and goes on

 

I can't imagine his family will be very pleased about that.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-wales-43077179

 

You are blaming supporters for the actions of some of the employees of the club they happen to watch on a Saturday.

did the report or documentary show in any way that supporters knew about it and turned their back on players?

 

It was a bit bizarre, without any suggestive dialogue, just a still photograph. & arguably a higher profile player than Paul Stewart & David White.

 

thanks ST - what has happened in the past is that when rumours of abuse have surfaced at a Club the Club has turned a blind-eye - look at Crewe or they have paid hush-money as happened at Chelsea - that is they have done everything to avoid adverse publicity.
With 800 victims who have come forward and 342 clubs implicated the issue of abuse at Football Clubs is a massive one -

The question I was asking was if an employee at any Club was accused of sexual assault on young player(s) would the fans back the abused player(s) or would their priority be to ensure the club's reputation wasn't besmirched and they would not back the abused player ??

 

Of course people would support he abused. There will always be a few idiots who wouldn't but they're the generally homophobic Neanderthals anyway, everyone else would support the player over the club I'm certain of it.

 

ep2 was unavailable to me too til today, but i still watched ep3 before 2
totally gobsmacked with it,
can't even believe how some even became household names in football with what happened to them
truly a very disturbing television program by some very brave men

 

I saw that. Wonder why.

 

Paul Stewart apparently addressed our academy & staff yesterday on safeguarding

 

How do you get Ep2? Saw 1 and 3 but couldn't get 2 on iplayer...

 

Edit - Forget that. Just watched it. It ...... kin ell.

And for anyone arguing or disagreeing with eachother on this thread have a effing word with yourselves.