I agree that that BBC headline is misleading and out of order. However, putting that to one side, would anybody be surprised if it turns out the club did know about the abuse claims, given that there is a propensity for organisations to sweep these things under the carpet - historical claims in particular - because they don't want the embarrassment of it coming out in public and having to deal with the shit storm afterwards? And let's be fair here - when you add in who our chairman was at the time, it wouldn't exactly be too much of a stretch to think the claims were largely ignored in the hope they would go away.
I would also add that City wouldn't exactly be alone in not acting upon this kind of thing. No doubt the vast majority of clubs name-checked in these wide-ranging abuse claims did the same. The FA too. And of course the BBC with Savile.