I feel like divorcing it most Saturdays because losing not only spoils my weekend I turn into an unbearable grumpy sod . Saying that , i feel that i support not only my club but also the town that I was born and the community as an whole . One weirdo wouldn't change that .
Thanks for posting, The last paragraph is quite interesting ‘The media are simply shining torches into the darkness. If the club’s board has any shred of morality left, it should turn on the floodlights and flush out the truth. Thanks for the memories but they are now forever tainted’
A very powerful statement, one which offers much food for thought. I think if this had happened at our club I would hope that they would strive for a full disclosure of the truth , the people who were victims deserve that alone. I do not think I would turn my back on the club but I would expect them to have a learnt a lesson & employ a structure within to make sure that this could never be repeated .
As long as the Chairman and Gradi are there, I don't blame him - clearly there was a cover up and clearly those 2 were involved, continuing support of the club is tacit acceptance of said cover up. And clapping the chairman is up there with clapping Ched in my book. In the same way I would never give money to Oxfam or Save the Children or indeed any international charity after what has come to light there.
Agree with most of what you wrote apart from the last sentence. You can’t lump all charities together like that any more than you could lump all football clubs together. I’d like to think that had Bannen been at our club John Dennis or Patrick Cryne would have acted differently
As long as the Chairman and Gradi continued to have connections with the club I would stay away. Bennell was abusing boys from the 1980's - why didn't those who were abused years ago speak out to the police/parents at the time? (some now in their 50's) - it would have stopped countless others being abused - do they feel any responsibility for what happened at the club to the youngsters who came after them
I suggest you read about the after affects of abuse Most likely yes they will suffer from guilt amongst many other things.
It seems like, just as happened in children's homes/boarding schools, Churches and many other settings - when adults have unsupervised access to children then these people will try and get in those positions. And as happened in the Church and other places these people were moved around or moved themselves around to avoid the law. The reports coming out of Charity's is the same - people moving from one charity to another or being moved on to avoid "embarrassing" the charity. The only way to stop it is total transparency and robust safeguarding policies which put a barrier in the way of these perverts getting jobs in the first place. Until someone can show me that is happening I'd rather not bother.
