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Paul Stewart - abused by football coach


HolyHank
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You have to say that along with Crewe, the two oil teams aren't coming out of this very well, Chelsea reportedly paying off a youth player to keep his mouth shut & Man City giving a clean reference for Bennell despite it being common knowledge around the city (to the extent that he was marched out of youth games on more than one occasion) that he was a nonce.

 

Grim stuff all round.

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Repugnant, morally questionable football club makes repugnant, morally questionable payment to former footballer to attempt to protect their repugnant, morally questionable selves. And this was a payment, and its silence clause, made last year, not in the 70's. Astounding.

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Repugnant, morally questionable football club makes repugnant, morally questionable payment to former footballer to attempt to protect their repugnant, morally questionable selves. And this was a payment, and its silence clause, made last year, not in the 70's. Astounding.

 

While I agree, I bet they're far from the only ones, this whole thing stinks to high heaven. 

 

Stewart deserves the utmost respect for what he's done, I hope the club and fans stand behind him 100%. 

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Great Piece in the Sunderland Echo http://www.sunderlandecho.com/sport/football/sunderland-afc/i-was-star-struck-by-my-sunderland-team-mate-paul-stewart-but-i-m-even-more-in-awe-of-him-now-1-8269308

 

 

By David Preece

First of all, let me say that as shocking as these child sex abuse revelations are, they aren’t a total surprise. The potential extent of them are, but from the moment I set foot in the full-time game, there was always a shadow hanging over football for me. At the time, it was only rumour and hearsay, but when conversations turned to Crewe Alexandra, the dark insinuations were never far away. I just saw it as people making twisted jokes and unfounded accusations on the basis of the club’s emphasis on youth Then I spoke to a someone who had not begun his career at Crewe but had been transferred there in his early 20s and the anger with which he spoke of these ‘rumours’ said to me there must be some truth in them. But surely if they were true, something would have been done about it by now? That’s what I thought. Naively. That it has taken this long shows the just how heavy the burden has been carried by victims. Not that Crewe are the only club. Players around the country – like Stewy – are now coming forward. It was difficult to watch someone who I have always identified as a strong individual look so vulnerable. Watching Stewy repeatedly bare his soul in front of the television cameras drew a myriad of emotions from me. Sadness. Anger. Sympathy. Above all, what I felt was an overwhelming admiration for the man. A man I’d known in our time together at Sunderland as a genuinely funny guy who lit up the dressing room. As a 20-year-old I was in awe of Stewy. He had achieved things I was still dreaming of, and despite the slight star-struck anxiety I had when I was with him, I was drawn to him. Not that we got off on the best footing. In one of our first training sessions, I came sliding out at his feet to block his run. It was one of the perverse situations you miss as a keeper when you no longer play. The type of 50/50 challenge where your upper body collides with the ball and the forward’s legs in perfect synchronicity. The timing is like the perfect golf shot; minimal contact, maximum impact, leaving just enough pain for it to somehow feel satisfying. Both of us ending up entangled on the floor. The ball free somewhere, expelled by the force of the challenge. As I struggled back to my feet, I could feel resistance. I was being pulled back. Instinctively, and somewhat stupidly, I kicked out, catching Stewy somewhere around the throat. Have you ever had your life flash before your eyes? That moment in a movie when the camera does an extreme close-up, right into the eyes the victim of misfortune, just in time to catch the pupils dilating as the adrenaline shoots through their veins. That was me. Pure panic. As Stewy grabbed me, I waited for my punishment. Bobby Saxton attempted to defuse the mismatch from the sidelines – “Stewy! Leave it. It was an accident”. We all knew it hadn’t been but he seemed to value my life enough to step in. My mouth, still disconnected from my brain, offered some resistance. A final act of bravado. And it was an act. The rest of training and the journey back to Roker Park was a blur. Reality was setting in. I was heading back to the dressing room and I was going to have to face Stewy. At 20, apologising and admitting you were wrong in front the whole dressing room doesn’t enter the equation. Do that, and no matter what the real perception is, your ego takes over. Rather than saying “Look, I was wrong. I’m sorry,” and holding out your hand, you prepare for confrontation. Show weakness and you’re as good as dead anyway. Or that’s what you think. I walk in and scan the dressing room. Stewy’s sat with his head down, taking his socks off. Richard Ord sees me come. He looks over at Stewy. This is it. “Stewy, what about Preecy starting on you?” he says. Stewy hasn’t seen me yet. “Yeah, I know. Fair play to him.” Then he looks up and sees I’m in the room. At this point I don’t know what the hell’s going to happen. He gets up and makes a beeline for me. My breathing gets more shallow. Regret engulfs me. Stern-faced, he asks “What do you think you were doing?” I shrug my shoulders, the disconnect between my mouth and brain more notable now. His nose is six inches from mine and just as my whole body tenses, a smile breaks out over his face, confusing me. “Don’t do that again, Preecy. I thought you were going to kill me. I was really scared.” He was the one holding out his hand. He was the one forgiving me for my act of immature stupidity. He could have embarrassed me in front of everyone and after my behaviour, I’d have deserved it. But he didn’t. What he did was teach me a valuable lesson that I took forward from that day. I’ve fallen out with almost every player I’ve played with in my career but with rare exception, the first thing I’ve done as soon as I step off the training pitch was to apologise, whether I was at fault or not. Whatever ignorant crap the likes of Eric Bristow might spout, men like Paul Stewart aren’t wimps. He stepped away from the stereotype of what was expected of a “man” and showed me how to rise about ego, bravado and faux machismo. And what he is doing now is a far greater than any kind of physical retribution he could hand out. Paul Stewart’s bravery is in helping others come forward and deal with the demons they’ve held inside for so long. And that makes him more of a man than anyone I know.

 

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What I don't get is how all these rumours fly about for years and nothing ever got done about it. All the journalists from the time should be held accountable aswell, some on Sunday Supplement last week said that they heard all the rumours and a few have also come out since saying it was common knowledge, why the fuck did they not expose the cunts? They have the platform to expose these vile cunts but for some reason choose not too. Why? More than likely to keep there jobs or further their careers, they should be disgusted in themselves. I'd personally rather expose them and risk losing my job and taking up a different career that doesn't involve me essentially covering up peado rings.

 

It's such a big disappointment that this is all coming out now, takes me back to when I was an innocent child just playing football because I loved playing football and having nothing else to worry about, it's so sad to think that kids the same age as me could have been going through this kind of abuse whilst I was enjoying playing football with my mates.

 

Where do you guys hear all these rumours from?

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I've been reading articles tonight from 2012 where it says Bennalls victims could be in the hundreds, so why has it taken 4 years for anything of note happening in the media? Is it simply just waiting for victims to come out? If so they should be applauded for having the bravery to come out and talk about it, it can't be easy in the macho world of football to come out and admit abuse.

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PFA probably too busy throwing a player under the bus for speaking Spanish to deal with some actual wrongdoing.

Hopefully this will finish that loathsome creep Taylor off. What are the PFA actually there for apart from creaming off as much as they can get from the PL tv deals so Taylor can splash out millions on Lowry paintings for his office and pay himself a salary of £3m plus a year?

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Hopefully this will finish that loathsome creep Taylor off. What are the PFA actually there for apart from creaming off as much as they can get from the PL tv deals so Taylor can splash out millions on Lowry paintings for his office and pay himself a salary of £3m plus a year?

Who was the chap before him? Graham Kelly was it? He always struck me as a man in it for himself too.

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Guest Pistonbroke

Who was the chap before him? Graham Kelly was it? He always struck me as a man in it for himself too.

 

They all are, and they'll always be replaced by someone from their own ilk. 

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Hopefully this will finish that loathsome creep Taylor off. What are the PFA actually there for apart from creaming off as much as they can get from the PL tv deals so Taylor can splash out millions on Lowry paintings for his office and pay himself a salary of £3m plus a year?

I've seen zero evidence that he isn't a nonce.

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Guest Pistonbroke
Southampton 'abuser' still working in football

 

An ex-Southampton FC employee who has been accused of abusing young boys at the club in the 1980s is still working in football, the BBC understands.

The man, who has not been named for legal reasons, is understood to have left Southampton after concerns were raised about his behaviour - but is now employed by another football club.

A former youth player has told the BBC he was abused by the man.

He is the fourth to allege he was subjected to abuse at Southampton.

The footballer was at Southampton for two years, between the ages of 14 and 16, in the 1980s, during which time he says a member of staff molested him.

Now a man in his 40s, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that young team-mates were made to take part in games of a sexual nature.

And he described the shame he felt as an adult looking back on what happened, saying he would dread going near the man.

He said the club employee would inspect the boys while they were naked, deliberately touch them inappropriately while giving massages, and make them put their heads in his lap.

He described a game in which young players were told to strip naked and expose their backsides in a contest, with the "loser" told to run naked around a tree.

He said: "At the time I was 14 and we thought the weird games he made us play... was a laugh. But I would never dream of asking anyone to do it now, I'd be locked up.

"He tried to assault me in a hotel room. I've sort of blocked it out of my mind. When it happened I just got up before he did anything, I got out of the room."

He criticised the police and Southampton FC for not doing more to investigate what happened at the club.

"I'm angry it's happening now and wasn't sorted out years ago," he said. "There's lots of failures in the system and he needs to be held accountable and he's scarred me.

"I've been offered money to talk about this but I don't want money, I just want him behind bars."

The BBC understands the employee left Southampton after concerns were raised about his behaviour towards the young players.

He went on to work for other clubs, although the BBC understands he was asked to leave one of them. The man is again working at another football club.

Southampton Football Club said it had contacted police after receiving information regarding historical child abuse and had offered its full support for any investigation.

Meanwhile, former footballers Andy Woodward, 43, Steve Walters and Chris Unsworth, both 44, have launched a support organisation - called the Offside Trust - to support players who are victims of abuse and their families.

The former players broke their silence last month to make claims of abuse in football, prompting several more to come forward.

On Thursday, former Southampton players Dean Radford and Jamie Webb alleged they had suffered years of sexual abuse by a former employee.

A third player has spoken to the BBC but remained anonymous.

Ex-Southampton manager Lawrie McMenemy said he was "shocked and disgusted" by claims of grooming and sexual abuse.

On Friday, former Chelsea footballer Gary Johnson, who was a member of the first team from 1978 to 1981, claimed the club had paid him £50,000 to keep quiet about abuse allegations.

He told the Daily Mirror he had been abused as a youth player in the 1970s by the club's former scout, Eddie Heath, who is now dead.

Former Chelsea midfielder Alan Hudson has said on Facebook that it was "common knowledge that Mr Heath was a danger to us youngsters".

Former England defender John Scales, whose clubs included Liverpool and Tottenham, told Today: "Football is a strange environment, the dressing room is a ruthless place where any vulnerability is a no-no because players would feel that they would be victimised, bullied, made a fool of, whatever.

"There's all sorts of rumours that go round dressing rooms and players talk, but never once did I ever hear of a player talking about having been sexually abused as a boy coming up through the ranks at a football club."

He said the only suspicion was about Crewe Alexandra FC which was at the centre of rumour and gossip.

Gerry Sutcliffe, sports minister between 2007 and 2010, said there was concern at the time about how the Football Association dealt with governance of the sport and with youth development.

Now, he said, an independent body, such as the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, should look at the issue rather than the FA investigating itself.

"What I've seen in football over the years is that they're very narrow, very insular, and may not do a proper job even though with the right intentions," he said.

The FA has said its review will be led by external lawyers and has not ruled out widening the investigation.

The captains of the England men's, women's and cerebral palsy football teams - Wayne Rooney, Steph Houghton and Jack Rutter - have taken part in a film about how to keep children safe in the sport.

Ex-England captain Alan Shearer has said he has been "shocked and deeply saddened" by revelations of abuse in the game.

Some 18 police forces have announced investigations into claims of sexual abuse in football.

A total of 350 people have come forward alleging they were victims and 55 football clubs are linked to allegations of abuse.

A dedicated NSPCC helpline received more than 800 phone calls in a week. The line is available 24 hours a day on 0800 023 2642.

Police forces investigating allegations of historical sexual abuse within football:

  • North Wales
  • North Yorkshire
  • Dorset
  • Staffordshire
  • Greater Manchester
  • Cambridgeshire
  • Hampshire
  • Cheshire
  • Northumbria
  • Metropolitan
  • Police Scotland
  • Avon and Somerset
  • Essex
  • Norfolk
  • Warwickshire
  • Derbyshire
  • Devon and Cornwall
  • West Midlands Police

Kent Police also said it had received reports which it was reviewing.

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Chelsea:

 

The club added it had "no desire to hide any historic abuse".

 

You did you cunts. 

 

The cheeky fucking bastards. They paid a guy 50 grand not to say anything about it. It's inconceivable that they were trying to do anything other than hide it.

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Guest Pistonbroke

The cheeky fucking bastards. They paid a guy 50 grand not to say anything about it. It's inconceivable that they were trying to do anything other than hide it.

 

Exactly, I hope they get hammered by the authorities. We all know that money talks though. 

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Clubs paying victims to keep their mouths shut should be relegated at the very least, that's a fucking disgrace that.

 

If that was Liverpool, I would personally knock watching Football on the head. I can't get over a club doing that at all, beyond shameful.

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