Crewe Alex Sex Abuse Scandal

[darren gregory]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38632026

Very damning report about the knowledge that top figures at Crewe had regarding the above,
Horrific goings on by this Bennell scumbag hope he rots in hell.
Offences happened at the home of the much vaunted Dario Gradi and the current chairman was at the club when a blind eye was turned .

 

[TimeyWimey]

I don't know more than the next person as to whether anyone at the club knew about it and speculating is not productive, although two separate police investigations have found nothing.

However, the club's statement and John Bowler's (chairman) lack of resignation is astounding. Knowledge or not, the club had a responsibility to those kids and failed big time. How Bowler can believe his position is tenable when he was not only a director but Chairman of the club for much of the time the abuse was happening is unbelievable. It brings utter shame on the club once again.

 

[JJ1532]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38632026

Very damning report about the knowledge that top figures at Crewe had regarding the above,
Horrific goings on by this Bennell scumbag hope he rots in hell.
Offences happened at the home of the much vaunted Dario Gradi and the current chairman was at the club when a blind eye was turned .

Sorry, hang on. One person has claimed the Alex swept this under the carpet, but despite 2 investigations, there is no evidence that actually happened. So your post is very misleading. Because of this, I'm changing the thread title.

However....

However, the club's statement and John Bowler's (chairman) lack of resignation is astounding. Knowledge or not, the club had a responsibility to those kids and failed big time. How Bowler can believe his position is tenable when he was not only a director but Chairman of the club for much of the time the abuse was happening is unbelievable. It brings utter shame on the club once again.

Yep, very much my thoughts on the matter. The club might wash their hands of this by claiming no knowledge, but Bowler and Gradi showed gross negligence in their failure to protect the boys affected by this sick bastard. The scale, both in terms of the number of boys affected and the time frame over which it was conducted, is staggering. If the club genuinely did have no knowledge, then that is terrible because it happened under their noses for years. What checks were in place to protect the boys from monsters like this? Clearly none. I am disgusted at the club, utterly disgusted.

 

[darren gregory]

One person who happens to be one of the country's top legal experts.
Andy Woodward and Steve Walters have also come out, i haven't made a misleading post at all. Also my post has nothing to do with being a Vale fan, this pervert was working at numerous clubs in the North West so was not a Crewe problem but a football problem.
I was quoting a BBC article so not sure how my article is misleading at all.

 

[TimeyWimey]

Sorry, hang on. One person has claimed the Alex swept this under the carpet, but despite 2 investigations, there is no evidence that actually happened. So your post is very misleading. Because of this, I'm changing the thread title.

However....
Yep, very much my thoughts on the matter. The club might wash their hands of this by claiming no knowledge, but Bowler and Gradi showed gross negligence in their failure to protect the boys affected by this sick bastard. The scale, both in terms of the number of boys affected and the time frame over which it was conducted, is staggering. If the club genuinely did have no knowledge, then that is terrible because it happened under their noses for years. What checks were in place to protect the boys from monsters like this? Clearly none. I am disgusted at the club, utterly disgusted.

But the general response amongst fans on social media has been one of victory about the "lack of evidence" (not innocence). I'm absolutely gobsmacked people think playing ignorant makes it all ok for Bowler and Dario (and whoever else was at the club).

I don't care what success on the pitch Bowler oversaw, if he's refusing all responsibility for this, willing to cling on to the job and allow the media to bury the club, he can rot.

 

[Chris FGR]

How come there were so many sick bastards around during that time?

Grew up in the 90's/00's in a fairly rough area and was lucky to never hear of anyone suffering this sort of stuff, but seems like a load of celebrities/people in powerful positions in this country were getting away with some fucking horrific things and it's only coming out a number of years later. Why the fuck was it allowed to go on? Surely some people knew. Unbelievable.

 

[JJ1532]

One person who happens to be one of the country's top legal experts.
Andy Woodward and Steve Walters have also come out, i haven't made a misleading post at all. Also my post has nothing to do with being a Vale fan, this pervert was working at numerous clubs in the North West so was not a Crewe problem but a football problem.
I was quoting a BBC article so not sure how my article is misleading at all.

Oh right, so because he's a legal expert, that makes the club guility of knowing, despite 2 investigations saying they didn't. He is alleging something the law is saying didn't happen. Andy Woodward and Steve Walters have also not definitely said the club knew. This BBC article does a better job of explaining it all and despite their extensive digging, the most they can say of the club knowing is the allegations by Hamilton Smith:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/my_football_dreams_were_shattered_by_barry_bennell

All the rest is speculation. We can all sit here and wonder whether they really knew and just destroyed the evidence of the conversations taking place, but that isn't how the law works. And don't worry, I wasn't judging the post on the fact you were a Vale fan. It's just that you stated that the club turned a blind eye, when there is no evidence to suggest they did. That is why it was misleading, as was your title that stated as fact that the club swept it under the rug, when again, there is no evidence that they did.

 

[darren gregory]

Smacks to me of self preservation, incredible that no one knew any of this, or even rumours.
How about Mr McGarry , your telling me 20 years plus of reporting on Crewe and he knows nothing?
Closed ranks and it stinks, irrelevant whether it is Crewe, Vale, Man City, Arsenal whoever .

 

[darren gregory]

How come there were so many sick bastards around during that time?

Grew up in the 90's/00's in a fairly rough area and was lucky to never hear of anyone suffering this sort of stuff, but seems like a load of celebrities/people in powerful positions in this country were getting away with some fucking horrific things and it's only coming out a number of years later. Why the fuck was it allowed to go on? Surely some people knew. Unbelievable.

I think it was a different culture Chris. Just look at a Top of the Pops in the 70's or 80's, scary the amount of teeny girls or boys hanging on every word of the DJ and the touchy feelyness of it all.
No doubt it went on in higher echelons of power, Parliament, Solicitors, Doctors, Celebrity, judges, Priests.
Incomprehensible really.

 

[ValiantRob]

Rumours were circling around local football circles from mid 80`s on,about the goings on at Crewe and yet the board knew nothing about it- remarkable.

 

[Laker]

If directors at Crewe didn’t know, they should have really. I appreciate it’s different times now and a different world but not knowing about this stuff is negligence itself. Then failing to act if they did know is obviously even worse.

 

[valefan16]

Rumours were circling around local football circles from mid 80`s on,about the goings on at Crewe and yet the board knew nothing about it- remarkable.

It’s been used (somewhat distastfully in typical football rivalry) as a taunt at Vale - Crewe games since I’ve been going too!

It’s not a good situation at all and it’s good it’s finally coming out as per the BBC, Children’s Homes and so forth have in recent years. The culture was different then, born in 85 and growing up late 80s into 90s as a kid you were outside until late playing and it was more relaxed and you respected/feared adults more which was clearly taken advantage of as being more safe then.

Nowadays kids are more protected and speak out more, don’t go out as much as it’s generally seen as less safe now to do so than it was so (plus always on iPads Xbox’s etc!) it doesn’t happen as easily and get hidden under the carpet although now the internet is the tool for paedos (in answer to FGRs question)

As for Crewe it doesn’t matter if they knew or not they need to have a look at themselves as a club and how it was allowed to happen regardless of knowing or not knowing as do the other clubs involved and indeed football on a wider scale. It can’t and shouldn’t be swept under the carpet and certainly more should have been done. Anyone involved should be and hopefully will be dealt with by the law now anyway.

Let’s hope this wasn’t a wider problem in the game and more cases come out going forward too. I guess after this if it was then it would see more speak out in the coming months/years.

 

[SoutheySWFC]

It's a football wide problem.

Bennell was a very very good coach by all accounts and an even "better" predator for want of a better phrase, kids manipulated into silence in fear of losing their dream, parents oblivious because of his lies.

There's a long standing issue with paedophilia in this country in my opinion with high ranking people aparty to it, the 70s etc saw numerous kids snatched and never seen again, rapes in children's homes etc some c*** are protecting them bastards and hiding those crimes even now.

 

[valefan16]

What’s the situation with Dario now?

 

[JJ1532]

What’s the situation with Dario now?

Officially still suspended I think, but a lot of our fans think his suspension was down to what went on at the Alex and that was never the case. He was suspended over allegations he tried to smooth over the sexual abuse issues at Chelsea before he was at the Alex. I don't think that has been resolved yet.

 

[Cereal Killer]

If directors at Crewe didn’t know, they should have really. I appreciate it’s different times now and a different world but not knowing about this stuff is negligence itself. Then failing to act if they did know is obviously even worse.

There was a senior copper on the news last night suggesting it was highly plausible the club didn't know about it. As this is how people like this operate, having control over the victims so it was never spoken about.

I played for the school of excellence at the time Bennell was coach and was completely unaware anything like this was going on. The parents of the kids clearly had no suspicions to allow their kids to spend that sort of time with him, including one victim whose father was a coach at the club (I believe for a period before Bennell left). I don't see it as being such a big leap to understand why the Directors were not aware of these horrific crimes.

It's going back a few years, but my recollection is that the introduce significant safeguarding measures following Bennells initial arrest. Whilst that was obviously way too late, it was probably ahead of many other clubs and other institutions at that time.

 

[SoutheySWFC]

There was a senior copper on the news last night suggesting it was highly plausible the club didn't know about it. As this is how people like this operate, having control over the victims so it was never spoken about.

I played for the school of excellence at the time Bennell was coach and was completely unaware anything like this was going on. The parents of the kids clearly had no suspicions to allow their kids to spend that sort of time with him, including one victim whose father was a coach at the club (I believe for a period before Bennell left). I don't see it as being such a big leap to understand why the Directors were not aware of these horrific crimes.

It's going back a few years, but my recollection is that the introduce significant safeguarding measures following Bennells initial arrest. Whilst that was obviously way too late, it was probably ahead of many other clubs and other institutions at that time.

Seems you were one of the 'lucky ones mate, to escape his vile clutches without being a victim.

 

[oakroader]

i wonder how many teachers and headmasters are shitting themselves now if people start to accuse them of being a bit to enthusiastic dishing out the slipper and the cane to schoolchildren before both got banned??
i can remember a teacher who had a reputation for being bit to keen in handing out this sort of punishment....
nobody complained back then...but things have changed and people are more suspicious now of what can be perceived as perverted behaviour .....
i would kill anyone who laid a hand on any one of my kids or grandchildren in the form of discipline...

 

[IanPVFC]

Having grown up fairly close to the north Staffs/south Cheshire border in the 90's let me tell you, it was very common knowledge that something was amiss about Crewe's academy.

I'm sorry, I just cannot accept that no senior figurehead within that club knew of what was going on, or even knew of rumours.

 

[valefan16]

The BBC has an article blasting Crewe by Lord Carlisle and an interview with an ex director who claims he did know about it and raised it in a meeting.

It is all very odd, even on their forums despite being nationally blasted in the press yesterday there is not one mention of it that I can see?

Seems to be conflicting reports so who knows, as has been said there were a lot of rumours for years in the area and had even been used by sections of Vale and Stoke fans to sing taunting the Crewe fans in games since the 90's.

 

[SoutheySWFC]

The BBC has an article blasting Crewe by Lord Carlisle and an interview with an ex director who claims he did know about it and raised it in a meeting.

It is all very odd, even on their forums despite being nationally blasted in the press yesterday there is not one mention of it that I can see?

Seems to be conflicting reports so who knows, as has been said there were a lot of rumours for years in the area and had even been used by sections of Vale and Stoke fans to sing taunting the Crewe fans in games since the 90's.

Interestingly Stoke have been named as a club who employed Bennell.

 

[IanPVFC]

Interestingly Stoke have been named as a club who employed Bennell.

He did indeed work for Stoke for a time, and then a pretty big local team called Stone Dominoes who were also initially linked right at the start of the investigation.

They all knew.

 

[TimeyWimey]

The BBC has an article blasting Crewe by Lord Carlisle and an interview with an ex director who claims he did know about it and raised it in a meeting.

It is all very odd, even on their forums despite being nationally blasted in the press yesterday there is not one mention of it that I can see?

Do we even have a forum anymore?

But the reaction from some of our fans is unsettling to say the least.

 

[denzel ecfc]

It's slightly unfair to single out Crewe here. Just listening to the account of one of them on 5live. The guy ended up at Rochdale where he was taunted, ostracized and laughed at by all, including the coach at the time. They all knew. All clubs knew. Yes it was 'different times ' but that's a pathetic excuse. It was wrong, and casts a dark stain on the game.

 

[SRNP]

First post in over a year (maybe 2) here. If anyone actually reads this then good job! Its going to be a long one as I need to vent about this subject.

I use to be a massive Crewe fan and poster on this site. I became a Crewe fan Mid-late 2000s so I was after all of this happened (so I might not be as die hard some fans) and I got swamped up with the Academy, proudly use to boast of it to friends and other football fans. I always knew that something had gone on but I was ignorant enough to let it go. When it all came out a couple of years ago, I was shocked and it changed football for me ever since. I have been to about 5 Crewe games in 3 seasons now, my passion for it has gone. Let me tell you why.

Firstly, someone very close to me has been through horrific child sex abuse for a number of years so this subject is close to my heart. When I started posting on the Crewe forums/twitter and talking to fellow fans, most fans sided with the club or just bypassed the fact kids were abused and went straight to "The medias witch hunt" and that the media was out to get us and how horrible it must be for Bowler (our chairman) and Dario etc etc. People banging on about this Dan Roan reporter, without realising how fucking awful that looks to most people. This made me so angry because some of our fans just didnt get the point. Kids have been abused at our club and the first thing some fans go to is to defend the reputation of the club and "innocent till proven guilty".

During this though I was doing an accounting and finance degree, massive part of it is business law i.e legal negligence, duty of care, compensation etc etc. I knew full well the club and the people running the club at that time are/were guilty of negligence. When kids signed for our academy, parents and the kids themselves had to trust the club to put the right people in charge. Whether the club knew about Barry, doesnt matter. Its the clubs duty to the kids to make sure they train, play football in a safe environment. The club failed. Over 100 kids raped. Furthermore, what is the club split into, is it 6 different companies now ? Please..... I wonder why......Look up veil of incorporation. If the club have to pay compensation, which company is it that has to pay now? Crewe Alex Stadium Ltd? Crewe Alex Ltd? Stadium park?......... All swallowed up behind the invisible barrier of different companies to protect those that would need to pay out of pocket.

Then some other things started to add up (or not) in my head.
I asked my Grandpa, who use to follow Crewe way back in the day, when this came out. His one liner at me was "The club has always been dodgey, rumors flying around well in the 90s, I thought nothing of it mind". How the fuck did my grandpa hear rumors, but the nobody at the club knew, it doesnt make sense. Then I thought about the Walsall game, why didnt Dario take a photo with the team XI made of Academy players? Guilt? The response from the club as always been "Its been proven we didnt know anything". Rather than "We didnt know anything, we wouldve done things If we knew". Dario himself has come out in the past and said he knew that kids were staying around Bennells house.

The worse thing is, the club has shown next to no remorse, I dont care about the statement, there has been nothing actively done. The worse thing about the Hamilton Smith (our ex director) is you can tell he is emotional about it and is telling the truth, he genuinely is putting himself in the firing line and he is the only person taking account for what has happened to hundreds of children at Crewe and some of our fans are saying things on facebook like "Why didnt Hamilton just go the police then" - "I dont trust this lying piece of shit" - Crewe Alexandra Chat Facebook - Look it up. The worse fans though are the ones going "its been investigated time and time and time again that we are innocent" all over social media. Give me a fucking break, can you be any more self absorbed?

If the club is going down the "We knew nothing" route - then the question is, what the fuck was the club doing when this was happening? If Crewe knew nothing then the club is negligent for the abuse suffered at the hands of Barry. If you dont think that - you are wrong. If you are going to try and make up a legal reason why this isnt the case, then again, you are wrong.

If a Crewe fan responds to this with any excuse to the defend the club, I admire your love and blind ignorance to the club you support, but the only victims of this here is the victims themselves. Not the you the fans, not the club and I know for most die hard fans its horrible to think about, but if this was Port Vale, or any other club you dont have any affections towards, all the pieces are there its just your love for the club blinding you. There is nothing to be proud of anymore, the club is rotten from the top to the bottom. No investor is going to take over the club with this reputation. IF there is a football club that deserves to fold, then Crewe have to be one of the main contenders. If the club has to pay compensation, which I am more than certain it will have to, maybe not tomorrow, or a year but a few years down the line. Then the club is done. Some fans "MIGHT" create a new club. However I dont think anyone would give it the time of day.

SRNP

 

[TimeyWimey]

First post in over a year (maybe 2) here. If anyone actually reads this then good job! Its going to be a long one as I need to vent about this subject.

I use to be a massive Crewe fan and poster on this site. I became a Crewe fan Mid-late 2000s so I was after all of this happened (so I might not be as die hard some fans) and I got swamped up with the Academy, proudly use to boast of it to friends and other football fans. I always knew that something had gone on but I was ignorant enough to let it go. When it all came out a couple of years ago, I was shocked and it changed football for me ever since. I have been to about 5 Crewe games in 3 seasons now, my passion for it has gone. Let me tell you why.

Firstly, someone very close to me has been through horrific child sex abuse for a number of years so this subject is close to my heart. When I started posting on the Crewe forums/twitter and talking to fellow fans, most fans sided with the club or just bypassed the fact kids were abused and went straight to "The medias witch hunt" and that the media was out to get us and how horrible it must be for Bowler (our chairman) and Dario etc etc. People banging on about this Dan Roan reporter, without realising how fucking awful that looks to most people. This made me so angry because some of our fans just didnt get the point. Kids have been abused at our club and the first thing some fans go to is to defend the reputation of the club and "innocent till proven guilty".

During this though I was doing an accounting and finance degree, massive part of it is business law i.e legal negligence, duty of care, compensation etc etc. I knew full well the club and the people running the club at that time are/were guilty of negligence. When kids signed for our academy, parents and the kids themselves had to trust the club to put the right people in charge. Whether the club knew about Barry, doesnt matter. Its the clubs duty to the kids to make sure they train, play football in a safe environment. The club failed. Over 100 kids raped. Furthermore, what is the club split into, is it 6 different companies now ? Please..... I wonder why......Look up veil of incorporation. If the club have to pay compensation, which company is it that has to pay now? Crewe Alex Stadium Ltd? Crewe Alex Ltd? Stadium park?......... All swallowed up behind the invisible barrier of different companies to protect those that would need to pay out of pocket.

Then some other things started to add up (or not) in my head.
I asked my Grandpa, who use to follow Crewe way back in the day, when this came out. His one liner at me was "The club has always been dodgey, rumors flying around well in the 90s, I thought nothing of it mind". How the fuck did my grandpa hear rumors, but the nobody at the club knew, it doesnt make sense. Then I thought about the Walsall game, why didnt Dario take a photo with the team XI made of Academy players? Guilt? The response from the club as always been "Its been proven we didnt know anything". Rather than "We didnt know anything, we wouldve done things If we knew". Dario himself has come out in the past and said he knew that kids were staying around Bennells house.

The worse thing is, the club has shown next to no remorse, I dont care about the statement, there has been nothing actively done. The worse thing about the Hamilton Smith (our ex director) is you can tell he is emotional about it and is telling the truth, he genuinely is putting himself in the firing line and he is the only person taking account for what has happened to hundreds of children at Crewe and some of our fans are saying things on facebook like "Why didnt Hamilton just go the police then" - "I dont trust this lying piece of shit" - Crewe Alexandra Chat Facebook - Look it up. The worse fans though are the ones going "its been investigated time and time and time again that we are innocent" all over social media. Give me a fucking break, can you be any more self absorbed?

If the club is going down the "We knew nothing" route - then the question is, what the fuck was the club doing when this was happening? If Crewe knew nothing then the club is negligent for the abuse suffered at the hands of Barry. If you dont think that - you are wrong. If you are going to try and make up a legal reason why this isnt the case, then again, you are wrong.

If a Crewe fan responds to this with any excuse to the defend the club, I admire your love and blind ignorance to the club you support, but the only victims of this here is the victims themselves. Not the you the fans, not the club and I know for most die hard fans its horrible to think about, but if this was Port Vale, or any other club you dont have any affections towards, all the pieces are there its just your love for the club blinding you. There is nothing to be proud of anymore, the club is rotten from the top to the bottom. No investor is going to take over the club with this reputation. IF there is a football club that deserves to fold, then Crewe have to be one of the main contenders. If the club has to pay compensation, which I am more than certain it will have to, maybe not tomorrow, or a year but a few years down the line. Then the club is done. Some fans "MIGHT" create a new club. However I dont think anyone would give it the time of day.

SRNP

Such a top post.

I’ve been told “safeguarding didn’t exist”, it was “different times” and “the club didn’t know so how are they at fault”. At which point given up all reasoning, it’s embarrassing shit that virtually says child abuse was normal until the millennium.

I think it’s fucking scandalous yet I’ve seen more anger from our fans this season at Ben Garratt starting a game.

 

[The_Boss]

Rumours were rife around the High Peak area for years across late 80's and early 90's. Seems the only place there were no rumours was inside the clubs themselves. Go figure that out.

 

[Soz]

Plenty of comments saying that 2 reviews have found that Crewe did not know about the abuse.

Is that true or did the reviews find that there was no evidence?

Totally different. Dario and Bowler have to go, at the very least.

 

[Douglas_Valley_Reds]

All these people saying it was common knowledge in the 80's & 90's, well why the fuck did you not say something, why has it only took till the last few days to say this, makes the online anonymous posters as guilty as Bennell, or maybe they know fuck all and are just shit stirring because they are fans of a rival club or have a weird axe to grind and in the case of SRNP, a very weird axe to grind indeed.

Let's be quite clear, the main focus is that boys got abused by an evil predator of a man, a man who deserves to die in my opinion. What those then young lads must have gone through, well I cannot imagine, and the whole episode is horrific, and my football team are caught up in it big time. I hope to god that the guilty verdict on Bennall brings some closure for these now grown men, I hope, if they go after compensation that they get it, I'm sure money will not erase the memory and pain, but I hope it helps in some way.

Some of the comments in this thread regarding Crewe Alexandra are awful, even subject to lible actions in the case of this SRNP bellend, I know for a fact that this cock has spammed other sites calling for the club to be demonised, and for some warped reason he has has then sent club officials friend requests on Facebook, why the hell would you do that, it's been suggested he is working for the press, I know his post on this thread has been sent to the club as there could be some libel issues with it, what an idiot you are, Sam. Oh yes, you are known.

I grew up and lived near the ground for the first 20 odd years of my life, that spans the 70's through to the early 90's, the includes the time Bennell was at the club . I never heard any accusations that sexual abuse was taking place, I had a couple of mates who were in the youth set up at the time, they knew nothing, they were not abused and they are shocked that some of their them mates were, they are stunned. But then, the parents of the abused boys, they knew nothing, the boys who were not abused, they knew nothing, their parents knew nothing, no complaints were ever made, Manchester City never warned Crewe about Bennall, yet Bennell brought some of these lads from Manchester to Crewe. In my opinion I honestly think that Crewe Alexandra did not have a clue what was going on, so when fuckwits like SRNP or that sock puppet Timey Wimey (yes he who says the club should get relegated, is the first to react to the original OP, and the first to react to SRNP, Crewe fan my arse) say the club have a duty of care, despite the police clearing the club of any wrong doing, how can you protect people if you do not know it's going on in the first place and nobody complains about it, and the parents are all happy as with the situation at the time, also, if Bennell borough a lot of the the boys from Manchester to Crewe, with the parents permission, how do you guard against that?

I think some people are comparing the safeguards now against the safe guards 20+ years ago, well countless organisations were infultrated back then, it's not an excuse, just a fact, why would a smallish football club like Crewe back then be able to detect a nonce like Bennell if massive oraganisations like the BBC or the Catholic Church couldn't, or so these organisations claim.

I know I will get pelters for my viewpoint, but when I read Oliver 'Stockport County' Holts latest piece of crap aimed at my club in the Daily Mail this morning, well I just fucking snapped, this arsehole tried to make out the whole town of Crewe was in some sort of weird dark and dank sinister mood back in 2016, he wrote this after we lost a home game in December 2016, December in Crewe, a working class northern town at 16:45 late on a Saturday afternoon in December, did this prick expect bright sunshine, anyway, his latest outburst is beyond the pale, he even exonerates Manchester City's involvement, Oliver say's Citeh good peados, Alex bad peados, the fucking shithouse. Holt says the club cobbled together a statement, that they try and celerbrate Woodwards failed legal action, no they don't, they are just pointing out they were found innocent of any wrong doing, Holt also says the club have not apologised, well the club have expressed their sympathy, but if they apooalgised then pricks like Holt would be asking why are you apologising if you are claiming to have done nothing wrong.

To sum up, my semi drunken, semi heartbroken rant, if the police have twice cleared the football club, well 3 times if you count Woodward's failed legal attempt for readys back in 2002 (that's disgraced former Lancashire Police Officer Andy Woodward's by the way) then I believe, as a fan, as a human, that the club did not cover up sexual abuse. I do believe the press have an agenda now, they don't give a shit about the abused lads, they care about a scoop, and because Dario and John Bowler are still on the clubs books this is the angle the press are going for, thy don't want to have their press passes revoked at the Etihad Stadium, epically now that City are on for a quadruple, Holt as already signalled that the press are not after City, despite City pressenting the world with fucking Bennall, or failing to warn us about him, as for little Crewe Alexandra, well we are never going to be footballing box office, not these days, but we would make a nice dark house of horrors story while City lift the Champions League trophy.

 

[SkyBluesRose]

Do we even have a forum anymore?

Platform 12 on footymad