The FA's child *** abuse inquiry?

[Rangersmandownunder]

I see more former Chelsea players are coming forward and admitting they knew what was going on, again one asks why they didn't feel the need to inform the police of the crimes being committed, once more we see the good name of a football club being put before the life of the victims.

Those that used money to silence these victims should be jailed and the club should be severely punished, I don't know if Chelsea won anything back then, but demotion and a huge fine would go someway to prove the FA were serious about this, or perhaps the lives of those ruined aren't important enough.

[Rangersmandownunder]

Football has always been immoral. It's always known that £300,000 a week for one goal all season is disgusting, that £30 for a baby-sized replica kit is a joke, and overlooking the vices of its players and managers is a disgrace.

But it has at least known what moral is . It just decided to do the opposite, because that was more fun.

Amorality is different. It means you have no idea what right or wrong is - you simply do what suits you, unable to see the harm it might cause.

And buying the silence of someone because they claim to have been sodomised by *****philes you employed is all the evidence we need to prove that football is more than just an ugly game. It's now an appalling one.


Child abuse victim and former Spurs player Paul Stewart (left) pictured with his abuser Frank Roper (right)
The fact there were, and possibly still are, perverts working in football is not a surprise. They can be found in any walk of life where children are entrusted to the care of others.

The fact less was done about these people then than would have been done today is also no surprise. People didn't talk about it, victims were often blamed, and it's natural to see such cases as a one-off because the alternative is hard to comprehend.

And the fact clubs like Chelsea may have paid a victim when they had the courage to come forward is to be expected. In the absence of a living perpetrator or a legal finding of criminality, any organisation with millions in the bank and a reputation to protect would seek to settle a claim out of court.


To use a chequebook, in other words, to smooth the bumps and hurt and problems that a damaging allegation will cause to an untold number of people - the victim, the innocent relatives of the alleged perpetrator, colleagues, friends, fans and, yes, shareholders.


You can argue about the rights and wrongs of paying someone for a hurt that is neither proven nor disproven, but there are at least two sides to see it from.

There is only one way to see a payment to a former player like Gary Johnson, who alleged child ***ual abuse, and which was conditional upon him never discussing it in public: it's a moral atrocity.

The deal may be accepted for a multitude of reasons. Lawyers may rightly advise it is the best they can hope for, and victims can decide that a court case would be too traumatic and involve being called a liar by the sort of defence that has driven other *** abuse victims to suicide.

Chelsea have since released Gary from that condition, his allegations remain unproven and there's no evidence Chelsea did anything wrong.

But that gag should never have been there in the first place.

When the silence about abuse in football finally ended a fortnight ago with Andy Woodward's devastating revelations, it led to 860 phone calls to a NSPCC hotline in its first week. Some may be from fantasists, but the huge number indicates there are many more victims who have never been heard before.

A third of the UK's police forces have now launched investigations into historical *** abuse allegations from 250 people. The geographical spread involved means there was probably more than one or two abusers at work.

If 1,000 people report offences taking place over three decades in a third of the UK in just a fortnight, it shows there is something to see. If it's never been properly dealt with before, then it's still there.

Which means there are still children being sodomised, groped, terrified and otherwise abused by *****philes employed to care for them. And the only reason it is still happening is because people never talked about it before.


Buying the silence of people you pay off is a standard clause in any out-of-court settlement.

But its inclusion in one about alleged child ***ual abuse has only one effect. By stopping one person speaking, it stops others realising that they can do the same.

Any children who are still being abused don't hear a grown-up say it's not right. They don't hear from footballers who never made it to the top because they were too damaged to get there. They don't see their favourite club call in the police.

So that child is allowed to carry on believing this is how things must be and that they must keep quiet about it.

If no-one speaks, then no-one screams. It's as simple as that.

The only people saying that must change are the men who have spoken up. The 20-odd footballers who have waived their anonymity to tell us what happened to them are now all that stands between the perverts and their prey.

Because the clubs, it would seem, never did.

It is quite a thing to see a sport as overtly hetero***ual, emotions-averse and success-oriented as football produce men prepared to discuss gay ***, child abuse, and their own vulnerability on daytime TV. That they did so is to their immense credit.

But now it appears that when concerns were first raised years ago the police didn't always get called in. The accused didn't always get sacked. And I'll bet you my last dime that Chelsea is not the only club that made a payment to hush things up.


FA chief Greg Clarke has vowed to compensate all players who were victims of ***ual abuse
Gary Johnson, who confronted Chelsea bosses about his ordeal last year, said: “I have nothing against the new regime, I realise what happened to me is a long time ago. But their attitude when I came forward was to sweep it under the carpet.”

That attitude has now changed, and is changing across the sport. FA chairman Greg Clarke says he will help all players harmed in the scandal. But it's too late to help one victim - which is football itself.

Because who benefits most from gagging clauses, pay-offs and a refusal to clean up the game? The *****phile whose victims are unnoticed. The club whose reputation is undamaged. And the money men whose profit margins are unharmed.

Now that silence has rebounded off a wall of defenders led by Andy Woodward, and smashed football's pretence of being a harmless game.

It is instead a sport that by brushing away the allegations every time they surfaced facilitated *****philes simply because it feared the damage done to its reputation more than the damage done to our children.

That is not just wrong - it is a sign you don't even know what wrong is . And in the end, the damage done to football is far greater than if a club chairman somewhere had just picked up the phone and called the police years ago.

[Rangersmandownunder]

It should be noted that every celtc fan saying that we Rangers men are using this as a point scoring exercise is quite happy to either call me by the name of a convicted pedophile or to happy break bread with those that do.

Every club exposed in this investigation must be punished appropriately, let's hope it's more than a monetary punishment which the likes of Chelsea will pay off easily.

[mogwaiCSC]

It should be noted that every celtc fan saying that we Rangers men are using this as a point scoring exercise is quite happy to either call me by the name of a convicted pedophile or to happy break bread with those that do.

Every club exposed in this investigation must be punished appropriately, let's hope it's more than a monetary punishment which the likes of Chelsea will pay off easily.

so you are now accusing me of calling you rolf? More bull sh7t. Another convenient mantra for you.

[Rangersmandownunder]

so you are now accusing me of calling you rolf? More bull sh7t. Another convenient mantra for you.

Mog, you should read that again, your anger has got the better of you and you are now seeing things that are not there.

For the record you have never used the Rolf insult.

[JackSnakes]

It should be noted that every celtc fan saying that we Rangers men are using this as a point scoring exercise is quite happy to either call me by the name of a convicted pedophile or to happy break bread with those that do.

Every club exposed in this investigation must be punished appropriately, let's hope it's more than a monetary punishment which the likes of Chelsea will pay off easily.

It is far, far too late for you on this thread. A serious subject you claim to uave personal experience of yet still cannot resist the point-scoring mentality. It really does speak volumes about you and the other two rats

[Taintedice]

Hard to believe a protestant Rangers fan was abused as a child by a catholic priest, which appears to be the story being peddled here.

[ZombieSkelper]

Also hard to believe someone who's brother went through such a terrible ordeal would be banned from this forum for Jimmy Saville & Jim Torbett jokes

[Rangersmandownunder]

It is far, far too late for you on this thread. A serious subject you claim to uave personal experience of yet still cannot resist the point-scoring mentality. It really does speak volumes about you and the other two rats

Go away Jack, I haven't mad any attempt any point scoring, I may have reacted badly in the past after being taunted with the pedophile insults, I really don't care what your opinion is, you are quite happy to chat away with those that ruin this board with the Rolf pedophile insults and then go all mock offended when celtc are used in the same sentence.

You and your Rolf buddies have tried desperately to get this thread binned and have me and others react in a way that would do so, well I am over all your friends pedophile insults, do what I do and ignore it if it bothers you that much.

[Sevvy too 2]

Go away Jack, I haven't mad any attempt any point scoring, I may have reacted badly in the past after being taunted with the pedophile insults, I really don't care what your opinion is, you are quite happy to chat away with those that ruin this board with the Rolf pedophile insults and then go all mock offended when celtc are used in the same sentence.

You and your Rolf buddies have tried desperately to get this thread binned and have me and others react in a way that would do so, well I am over all your friends pedophile insults, do what I do and ignore it if it bothers you that much.

Ah that's auld hun mantra, it was somebody else.