The Beautiful Game (child abuse scandal) | PASOTI
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The Beautiful Game (child abuse scandal)

cheshiregreen

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This is such a depressing story. A sad reflection on the professional game, I dread to think what might have gone on at other levels of football..

Surprised that this thread has seen so little comment.
 
Jan 7, 2007
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Me too. I guess it's hard to know what to say. Clubs at all levels have safeguarding officers but do kids know that they have a safe port of call if they are subject to inappropriate behaviour? I think every parent should be asking what is in place.
 
Apr 12, 2016
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Mike Charlick":1ppr9j9g said:
Heartbreaking interviews on the Victoria Derbyshire programme today. The football community needs to have a good look at itself.

Yes I watched that and it was tough viewing. These guys have you would imagine had to deal with years of anguish. Hope this will go someway to mending some of the hurt.
 

dunlop

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What has happened to football, from the very top we have the corrupt FIFA, we have greed,we have cheats and now we have child abuse.

Football has always had a bit of a dodgy reputation where we had chairman pocketing gate money and the occasional betting scandal, or a sex scandal but the latest disclosure of the abuse of young boys being abused by their coaches brings a tear to my eye.

For 70 years I have unashamedly been in love with the game like many my age if we had a ball and a wall we would be happy football has been part of life a religion some would say,supporting our special club Argyle for all those years through the highs and lows has kept my love for football going Argyle is for life.

The latest disclosures is a real body blow to the game can we ever call it the beautiful game again.
 

Biggs

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Not exactly a comforting thing to say, but this is a society problem and an institutional problem within some (hopefully not many) clubs, rather than a football problem. Where there are men in authority over young people, the grim truth is that this sort of scandal happens. We've seen it in the Church, in orphanages and in the media.

Something has to be done to stop this happening. As well as more reporting and stringent checks, I have my own loony left ideas on this matter, that until we start treating paedophilia as an illness and give people the treatment they require before they offend, it's going to keep happening. But that will never happen because of the rabid public reaction and headlines like 'NHS SPEND YOUR MONEY ON PAEDOS'.

*waits for thread to be moved to Opinions*

Anyway, the beautiful game is... as you mentioned... the joy spent kicking a ball against a wall for hours or the ecstasy when your midfielder scores a 30 yard strike in Carlisle. Nothing will change that.
 

Lundan Cabbie

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Sep 3, 2008
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We have known for many years that these type of people who prey on young boys are out there. It is naïve to think that they would never have infiltrated youth football. I find it shocking but these revelations haven't totally surprised me. We as a society should have been more aware that our kids were vulnerable.
 

justanotherfan

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Mar 4, 2012
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Child abuse is not a new phenomena, in any area of everyday life where adults hold reign over children and infants, abusers will appear. It is not confined to men, it is not confined to any age group, until the abuser starts his evil practices it is impossible to identify them, there is no outward sign. Unfortunately in our society there has often been a stigma attached to the abused and often in times past they were not to be believed, primarily because if it was believed then it would become all too real. Thankfully we now live in more open times and we have a breed of abused who are prepared to stand up and give up their anonymity and bring this out in the public forum. This current spate of child abuse revelations must be investigated fully and the abusers punished accordingly. I don`t mean chemical castration but custodial sentences, chemical castration only works if the medication is taken, prison works unequivocally. In my belief it is not possible to "cure" paedophiles, as long as there are children they will be a risk. I have tried to write this in a restrained fashion, my gut feeling on the way paedophiles should be treated would not be fitting for a forum such as this. How sad that this should even have to be raised.
 
Feb 28, 2016
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Agree with (certainly at least the first paragraph) of Biggs' post and Lundan's as well. You can even add parliament to the list with Cyril Smith and lots of other reported rumours involving the likes of Leon Brittan and Ted Heath and the Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens was certainly close to uncovering something there in the 80s.

There are a lot more safeguards in place nowadays: computer databases, background checks etc. I would be surprised if a coach is ever left on his own without a another adult there, coupled with a shift in society now that parents will believe their own children over "authority figures" that will make it harder for something like this to happen and I believe kids these days are more likely to come forward and be took seriously.

I think we'll see a lot more clubs drawn into this, but I would be surprised if many incidents would have occurred after the mid 1990s, Back in the 1980s you even had groups such as the PIE openly campaigning for paedophiles.

if one in however many people are paedophiles it stands to reason that ratio will be in any given industry. As others have said society made it easier back then and this was sadly inevitable, all it needed was the first person to be brave enough to come out and talk about it openly and Andy Woodward has now done that. Just hope no one here was up to anything untoward and hope the club remains vigilant to strive to ensure it doesn't happen to anyone else.
 

IJN

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Nov 29, 2012
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The paedos are unfortunately a fact of life and have been for centuries I suspect, it's the covering up of their beastly ways that I don't understand.
 
Mar 25, 2007
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Now that there have been high profile cases in the media hopefully this will lead to a culture of openness where football as a whole recognises that this could happen, and has happened, and puts measures in place where abuse can be confidentially reported and dealt with. I fear that Fifa's investigation may lead to few offenders being prosecuted then hailed as a success without changing the culture that allowed these things to happen undiscovered. We don't need a witch hunt, we need players and apprentices to be aware of and able to report abuse without fear of stigma and losing their career.
 
Sep 6, 2006
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Evilpilgrim":3j7n37z6 said:
Now that there have been high profile cases in the media hopefully this will lead to a culture of openness where football as a whole recognises that this could happen, and has happened, and puts measures in place where abuse can be confidentially reported and dealt with. I fear that Fifa's investigation may lead to few offenders being prosecuted then hailed as a success without changing the culture that allowed these things to happen undiscovered. We don't need a witch hunt, we need players and apprentices to be aware of and able to report abuse without fear of stigma and losing their career.


'We dont need a witch hunt'? So those responsible for committing or allowing such behaviour should be allowed to get away with it?