What the Hell? Allegations of Rampant Sexual Abuse in English Youth Football

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Sunny von Bulow
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Jan 10, 2004
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/child-sex-abuse-allegations-widen-against-british-soccer-clubs/2016/12/01/beb1d082-b7d8-11e6-939c-91749443c5e5_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_britabuse-637pm:homepage/story&utm_term=.b2e2e24b31c5

LONDON — An investigation into claims of child sexual abuse involving British soccer clubs has grown to about 350 alleged cases, a police group said Thursday, as the sport’s overseer opened its own inquiry into possible coverups spanning decades.

The widening investigations have rocked Britain’s most popular sport and its affiliated clubs, including systems of youth camps.

Over the past two weeks, several former professional soccer players have come forward to recount harrowing tales of abuse that they said they suffered as children and had been kept secret for decades.
Notwithstanding the incorrect use of "British": what the fucking fuck? Anyone hear anything about this before? First I've heard so I'm taken off guard, though not surprised - nothing against football or England per se, but it sadly seems as if any youth enterprise is prone to this.
 

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Sunny von Bulow
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Jan 10, 2004
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Yes.

Given the Fleet Street mania for stoking sensational news, I'm just surprised not to have heard of this particular outrage before.
 

CoRP

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Sexual assaults against children are crimes that many people are reluctant to even speak about.
 

Rick Burlesons Yam Bag

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/child-sex-abuse-allegations-widen-against-british-soccer-clubs/2016/12/01/beb1d082-b7d8-11e6-939c-91749443c5e5_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_britabuse-637pm:homepage/story&utm_term=.b2e2e24b31c5



Notwithstanding the incorrect use of "British": what the fucking fuck? Anyone hear anything about this before? First I've heard so I'm taken off guard, though not surprised - nothing against football or England per se, but it sadly seems as if any youth enterprise is prone to this.
It's not an incorrect use of British. There have been allegations against coaches in Wales, Scotland and NI too over the last few years regarding that period of time.

In truth, I think all countries have dealt with this to some degree. It is why every youth organization on the planet require background checks and require multiple coaches to be around, yada yada yada. I don't want to come off as cynical on this one because I am not, but this story could have been reported 2 years ago, 5 years ago or 10 years ago. The FA and youth rugby took the right steps 20+ years ago when they put in the same checks that youth hockey, youth football and youth baseball coaches go through in North America, and they did so because of these reports.

I played youth soccer in the UK during this period and the guy I played for - who, looking back, was almost certainly a gay man who did not have kids of his own and who loved coaching and loved soccer - was one of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet in your life. He gave me lifts home all the time and spent the time talking sports and academics. It is a shame that coaches like that - who are the vast majority of coaches - are viewed sideways now because of these monsters.
 

Bergs

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Jul 22, 2005
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It's not an incorrect use of British. There have been allegations against coaches in Wales, Scotland and NI too over the last few years regarding that period of time.

In truth, I think all countries have dealt with this to some degree. It is why every youth organization on the planet require background checks and require multiple coaches to be around, yada yada yada. I don't want to come off as cynical on this one because I am not, but this story could have been reported 2 years ago, 5 years ago or 10 years ago. The FA and youth rugby took the right steps 20+ years ago when they put in the same checks that youth hockey, youth football and youth baseball coaches go through in North America, and they did so because of these reports.

I played youth soccer in the UK during this period and the guy I played for - who, looking back, was almost certainly a gay man who did not have kids of his own and who loved coaching and loved soccer - was one of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet in your life. He gave me lifts home all the time and spent the time talking sports and academics. It is a shame that coaches like that - who are the vast majority of coaches - are viewed sideways now because of these monsters.
How was his mom?
 

Bergs

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Jul 22, 2005
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I met her a few times actually, he lived with her. In his late 30s. I've always felt so bad for the guy because he was a truly great human, but coming out in the 80s was such a huge step compared with today (when it is still difficult).
This post sucked at being funny.
 

Rick Burlesons Yam Bag

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This post sucked at being funny.
Yeah, you know, I realize that I took the thread in a quirky direction. I guess, to me, the whole scene is a downer. A friend of a friend was involved in a molestation situation when he was coming up through the Chelsea system (not by a coach at Chelsea, a guy who was running personal coaching for high end youth athletes) and it really messed him up for life. And then on the flip side of that, there was a wonderful man who was a phenomenal youth rugby coach in our area who had the living shit kicked out of him one night because he came out of the closet at nearly 50 years of age. The 80s and 90s sucked in a lot of ways around this shit.
 

Marciano490

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Yeah, you know, I realize that I took the thread in a quirky direction. I guess, to me, the whole scene is a downer. A friend of a friend was involved in a molestation situation when he was coming up through the Chelsea system (not by a coach at Chelsea, a guy who was running personal coaching for high end youth athletes) and it really messed him up for life. And then on the flip side of that, there was a wonderful man who was a phenomenal youth rugby coach in our area who had the living shit kicked out of him one night because he came out of the closet at nearly 50 years of age. The 80s and 90s sucked in a lot of ways around this shit.
I know you're not doing this purposefully and are very right-headed about all this, but let's disentangle pedophilia from homosexuality.

This is something I've very much worried about when I've thought about how I would parent my own children someday. One of my boxing coaches, not Goody, but a guy who worked under him at the gym, had been high up in USA Boxing before coming to us and it was later found out that he'd molested a number of children. He was working the corner of one of Kevin McBride's fights at the Garden I believe and one of his former victims tried breaking into the dressing room with a gun. I was 20 at the time, so he was never anything but a hard ass to me, but even so, he'd always do "ab checks" and the like. The really sad part was that he'd moved in with the mother of two of the younger fighters at the gym, these two brothers who were very, very good (saw the older one handle Demetrius Andrade in the amateurs). Eventually they all stopped showing up and I lost track of them, but I can only imagine what they went through growing up in a house with that guy. And, shit, I used to pick them up in Quincy and drive them down to Brockton - all 3 of them - and back 5 days a week and had no fucking idea.

But, obviously, it's not just man-boy, and we've had scandals in swimming and gymnastics in the past few years here, too, that were heterosexual.
 

Rick Burlesons Yam Bag

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I know you're not doing this purposefully and are very right-headed about all this, but let's disentangle pedophilia from homosexuality.

This is something I've very much worried about when I've thought about how I would parent my own children someday. One of my boxing coaches, not Goody, but a guy who worked under him at the gym, had been high up in USA Boxing before coming to us and it was later found out that he'd molested a number of children. He was working the corner of one of Kevin McBride's fights at the Garden I believe and one of his former victims tried breaking into the dressing room with a gun. I was 20 at the time, so he was never anything but a hard ass to me, but even so, he'd always do "ab checks" and the like. The really sad part was that he'd moved in with the mother of two of the younger fighters at the gym, these two brothers who were very, very good (saw the older one handle Demetrius Andrade in the amateurs). Eventually they all stopped showing up and I lost track of them, but I can only imagine what they went through growing up in a house with that guy. And, shit, I used to pick them up in Quincy and drive them down to Brockton - all 3 of them - and back 5 days a week and had no fucking idea.

But, obviously, it's not just man-boy, and we've had scandals in swimming and gymnastics in the past few years here, too, that were heterosexual.
I was doing quite the opposite I thought, noting how homosexual men during that period who I knew quite well were afraid to come out (even more than normal) for fear that they would be accused of getting into coaching to molest and noting one instance of where the fear was reasonable. Heterosexual acts of abuse do occur, but the opportunity for women to molest young boys is very rare in youth sports.
 

Marciano490

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I was doing quite the opposite I thought, noting how homosexual men during that period who I knew quite well were afraid to come out (even more than normal) for fear that they would be accused of getting into coaching to molest and noting one instance of where the fear was reasonable. Heterosexual acts of abuse do occur, but the opportunity for women to molest young boys is very rare in youth sports.
I clearly misread the connection you were making, and that's on me. As for heterosexual acts of abuse - you're right there are few women coaching boys, but there are a ton of men coaching girls.
 

Bergs

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Jul 22, 2005
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If we can't laugh at homosexual oppression and child sex rings, I don't know if I want to be on this earth anymore.
Exactly.

On a serious note, there appears to be no shortage of sick fucks on this planet. The mind boggles.
 

Rick Burlesons Yam Bag

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I clearly misread the connection you were making, and that's on me. As for heterosexual acts of abuse - you're right there are few women coaching boys, but there are a ton of men coaching girls.
In truth, reading back on what I wrote, I could have been much more clear. You were right to raise it as a concern.
 

Marciano490

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In truth, reading back on what I wrote, I could have been much more clear. You were right to raise it as a concern.
It's a shitty, emotional issue and it sounds like we both have personal connections that aren't nearly as devastating as many others but are enough to make rhetorical precision and linguistic exactitude a little difficult.