Paedophilia within the game/City launch redress scheme

jay_mcfc said:
The rumour is that a reporter was paid off by people at City to keep quiet. Basically suggests that they knew all about what was going on and if that's true they'll rightly be in the shit. Finding who was responsible and who knew might be tricky though.
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I have always maintained that a former club secretary and FA representative - now hailed ''Mr Manchester City'' knows where all the bodies are buried......
 
We aren't scousers if our club is at fault then we own it, we hang out everyone involved & ensure this never happens again. It's been endemic but I'm sure one of our former players talked about it happening at another club.
 
I don't see an agenda in today's reporting. We're now a very high-profile club, a former England player who came up through our youth set-up is claiming he was abused by the coach of a City-affiliated boys' team, and we've announced that we feel the need to investigate our links to a convicted predatory paedophile. Of course in the context of the current revelations, that's major news and it's perfectly proper for the sports editors of national newspapers to go big with it.

I basically agree with the post of cheekybids above. First, we find out what's happened at our club in the past, to which end I think we've done the right thing by announcing an investigation even if it's led to some headlines this morning we might otherwise have avoided (for the time being at least). If there's been wrongdoing at our club in the past, we acknowledge it, assist the proper authorities where we can to ensure that justice is done under the criminal law, do anything else we reasonably can to make whatever amends are possible to the victims, and learn whatever lessons there are to be learned.

Unfortunately, we can't change what's been done in the past. What is within our control is whether handle ourselves professionally and honourably in the present, and we should make sure we do.
 
Blumooniac said:
Well done, Paul Stewart. Great courage, full of admiration for you.

As for the headlines Ric has just posted; Well, what do we expect? Lame journalism, seeking to score cheap points when covering a serious issue that encompasses the whole of football. Sad.
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Maybe but had it been someone connected with the Rags this forum would have a field day.I suggest we concentrate on helping these ex players some comfort of help ... they deserve that as a minimum.
 
I played for Whitehill at Cheadle in early 70s. We were city junior team.city kit, trips out to Blackpool, pressies etc.

Bennell was not coach at this time.

The coach though was still a fiddler
Parents complained, he was kicked out
and team disbanded.

You could not blame city as in those times there were not the same checks and safeguards in place.
 
asahartford1 said:
I played for Whitehill at Cheadle in early 70s. We were city junior team.city kit, trips out to Blackpool, pressies etc.

Bennell was not coach at this time.

The coach though was still a fiddler
Parents complained, he was kicked out
and team disbanded.

You could not blame city as in those times there were not the same checks and safeguards in place.
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I played for Whitehill at same time , about 1970 and the rumours were rife then. That manager was a twat in every respect.
 
Is it me or are the number of links and reports to City increasing on this? No matter how trivial or remote the press seem to be linking this to City. Perfect opportunity for the press to destroy the brand when these snowballs happen.

I would expect Utd dominated press to make the most out of this..... any spurious link, and gossip, anything with City linked to it, whatever bullshit they can report it. And if you think the press care about these players and what has happened to them, then you are thinking wrong, they will use this as a way of trying to destroy this club.

Hopefully I am wrong, but I am so cynical about the press and how they work nowadays
 
asahartford1 said:
I played for Whitehill at Cheadle in early 70s. We were city junior team.city kit, trips out to Blackpool, pressies etc.

Bennell was not coach at this time.

The coach though was still a fiddler
Parents complained, he was kicked out
and team disbanded.

You could not blame city as in those times there were not the same checks and safeguards in place.
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I fully agree that times were different. And City do seem to have acted in relation to your coach. The allegation with Bennell seems to be that the club had, at the least, reasons to look into his behaviour, but didn't because we considered him someone who would channel gifted young footballers into our youth set up.

This comes from the story in today's Times, the comments being from a man who came forward 20 years ago to disclose that he'd been abused by Bennell:

Bennell was successful, charismatic. He had his outward charm and links with clubs including Manchester City. He took Ackley to the Platt Lane training complex several times. “He seemed to be able to go as he pleased,” Ackley recalls. “He very much seemed part of the team. City? They have questions to answer, absolutely.

“I understood at the time that there was a letter from a parent to City complaining about a child staying in Bennell’s room. Because he produced the goods, because he was a good talent-spotter, a blind-eye was turned by clubs. They were more interested in the talent. That’s the ruthless edge of football. That helped him get away with it.”
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Now, reports are suggesting that there are large numbers of victims associated with clubs across the country and there are many abusers, not just one bad apple in the guy who's been named so far. If that's right and assuming City were guilty of turning a blind eye to Bennell in the way that Ian Ackley suggests, I'd strongly suspect that we were far from the only club taking that line, but that's no mitigation.

The heat is on us at the moment because there aren't many convicted abusers associated with football. What the media can say about other cases and other individuals is limited because they may result in police investigations and criminal proceedings down the line, while it's also potentially highly defamatory when the evidence at this stage probably amounts to one person's word against another's.

Bennell isn't going to sue for libel. He's a proven paedophile with multiple criminal convictions and doesn't have a reputation left to damage.

EDIT - An unnamed ex-Newcastle player has contacted police to say he was abused by a convicted paedophile in the north east who was once a "highly respected coach in youth circles". Wonder if more if his victims will come forward: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/nov/24/george-ormond?CMP=share_btn_tw
 
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