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Sheldon Report on child abuse in football


Jacko51

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20 minutes ago, darren1810 said:

What a difficult watch this programme is.

Took some guts for Woodward to come forward. 

Too true, extremely upsetting watch that.  No wonder those poor boys were traumatised for life. No sentence is enough for that b*****d.

How you could find the strength to recover from that I just don't know.

I wonder just how many lives Bennell and his ilk ruined.

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On 20/03/2021 at 07:25, Doha said:

JESUS CHRIST

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/crewes-bid-to-shut-down-sex-abuse-apology-from-manager-david-artell-d6l62n785

Crewe Alexandra yesterday appeared to take steps to suppress the reporting of an apology made by their manager David Artell to the victims of child sexual abuse at their club. A Crewe official told The Times that the club had intervened yesterday because their directors were “uncomfortable with the ‘sorry’ thing”.

A report published this week said Crewe could have done more to prevent sexual abuse carried out in the 1990s by their former coach Barry Bennell, who is serving a 30-year prison sentence for his crimes. In response, the club issued a carefully worded statement that did not apologise directly to survivors, instead saying sorry “if there were in fact any warning signs that ought to have led the club to do more”.

The statement, which came more than 24 hours after the report was published, was described as mealy-mouthed and begrudging by survivors.

Yesterday Artell, 40, issued an unqualified apology that was far less scripted while appearing at his regular weekly press conference. “I’m not sure of the reasons it didn’t happen earlier,” Artell said, when asked why Crewe took longer than other criticised clubs to make a formal response. “But I know it was important for the football club to say sorry after the report concluded and what it said in the findings.”

Artell’s press conference, conducted via Zoom because of lockdown restrictions, involved only a handful of local reporters. Soon after it finished those reporters were contacted by the club and told that should Artell’s comments “go national” — a reference to them being reported in the national media — that the club may cancel future Zoom press conferences.

That led to some reporters electing not to report Artell’s apology, and one news website taking it off their site completely, despite having initially published it.

When questioned by The Times, Crewe’s press officer, Rob Wilson, said: “The board [of directors] were uncomfortable with the thing about the ‘sorry’ thing and that was the way it was.”

When questioned if he had asked for the story to be suppressed, Wilson said: “I just asked the question [of] where it was going to go. I never asked anyone to pull any interviews.

“I asked them where it was going to go, so we could cover off where it was going to go. It was done on a local level and we were worried it was going to go national.

“It wasn’t a threat at all. Do you want me to be honest? I said to them I have to be careful then, when I speak on a local level, if it was going to a national level — because we’ve got to cover our manager.

“I was worried if you record a Zoom press conference it can go anywhere in the world.

“I don’t think it was a threat. I said we would have to rethink how we do press conferences on Zoom. That’s my quote to you. I have to rethink, going forward, about recording Zoom press conferences if it goes from a local level to a national level [and about] protecting our manager and directors.”

Crewe have reached financial settlements with a number of former players who were abused by Bennell but those settlements have never included direct personal apologies from the club to the survivor for the abuse they suffered, unlike the settlements reached by Manchester City, who also employed Bennell.

A former player and the Crewe manager for the past four years, Artell spoke with compassion about the abuse scandal which resulted in one of his predecessors, Dario Gradi, being banned from football indefinitely by the FA. “That’s hopefully a way to help people move on,” he said. “Whether it does or not — I don’t want to be seen as uncaring about this — the club said ‘sorry’ more than once in the statement and I hope that the survivors can find comfort in that if they need to.”

Board members at Crewe have been dismissive in their response to questions about Bennell in the past and the tone of their statement offended The Offside Trust, set up by survivors of child sexual abuse. They said: “We are pleased to see the club finally say ‘sorry’ — shame it has been delivered in such cold, mealy-mouthed, legalistic fashion. The emphasis on their lack of culpability makes it sound begrudging.”

When is an apology not an apology? - when it comes from Crewe Alexandra! This, to me, feels like an empty gesture...especially regarding the Zoom conference!

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2 hours ago, Phil1965 said:

That was a difficult watch. It contained totally inappropriate behaviour from BB and hopefully he will never be released from prison. It’s time for my club to say they got it wrong and make amends to those affected.

They have had enough time to do that.

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8 minutes ago, Phil1965 said:

I’m getting loads of stick from Crewe supporters for being a member of this group. I told them I have been made welcome but that is their problem!

That's very sad Phil.  Sounds like some Crewe fans still want to pull up the barricades and stick their fingers in their ears.

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