I'd also be wary of jumping to conclusions based on the Telegraph's report. I would expect some other victims will come forward to corroborate the abuse claims dating back all those years.

The club could argue it is not guilty of ignoring or rubbishing the allegations as it has financially compensated the victim for something that happened decades ago. As the abuser was dead the club and police might have concluded that the victim could never have justice through the courts, so a financial settlement was appropriate. You know that this will be presented as 'hush money', but it was hardly a pay-off with threats attached as it didn't appear to stop the victim going to the police.

As regards the 'confidentiality agreement' that supposedly no one can know exists, you can argue that that this is fairly common when things are settled out of court.

It doesn't appear as if the club were covering up for someone and turning a blind eye so they could carry on abusing young boys, as the abuser was already deceased, but you can be sure it will be viewed that way in some quarters, as it will be seen as trying to pretend it never happened and protect the club's name and reputation rather than exposing the issue to public scrutiny (which itself could have been effective in preventing any subsequent abuse).

Whatever the actual events surrounding the payment, you hope the club will come clean very swiftly and hold its hands up if it's guilty of anything. If heads roll then so be it. 

The whole business is horrific and I hope the exposure and full-scale inquiry can in some way help the victims (who must run into hundreds if not thousands, based on what we've read) cope with what can only be a life-long trauma. It's be chilling reading and seeing these interviews with the victims this past week.

 

So my concerns would be did the club do a thorough investigation when this was brought to their attention a few years ago or did they just pay and forget about it. The latter would really concern me

^^ Well said, Backbiter. If the club investigated and concluded that it happened, there's nothing they could do for this particular case because the abuser had died.

I believe, however, that they had the moral duty to enact measures to prevent such a recurrence, if those measures were not already in place. Examples of such measures are running background checks on employees, providing a way for employees to confidentially report a co-worker if they witness abuse, etc.

3 minutes ago, Brutos said:

So my concerns would be did the club do a thorough investigation when this was brought to their attention a few years ago or did they just pay and forget about it. The latter would really concern me

I'm sure the independent legal firm will answer that, but until it does things will be very uncomfortable for the people who hold the purse strings at the club. I suppose they can't say anything publicly now the investigation is underway.

3 minutes ago, offside said:

^^ Well said, Backbiter. If the club investigated and concluded that it happened, there's nothing they could do for this particular case because the abuser had died.

I believe, however, that they had the moral duty to enact measures to prevent such a recurrence, if those measures were not already in place. Examples of such measures are running background checks on employees, providing a way for employees to confidentially report a co-worker if they witness abuse, etc.

That's been a legal requirement for anyone who works with children for a good few years. Teachers, youth workers, sports coaches etc. But they only look for criminal records, I think, so if abuser has never been caught he will pass the background checks. The tragedy is that so many child abusers have managed to get away with it for so long either because the victims were too ashamed or scared to tell anyone, or because they weren't taken seriously when they did.

Someone was abused by a Chelsea Scout. They approached the Police and Chelsea. Chelsea settled with the individual outside of court. In such a circumstance a confidentiality clause is fairly common practice. Hush money is just a sensationalist term in this instance when the police are involved. 

I imagine Chelsea would have investigated further and I would be shocked if the Police did not, but the accused had died and there was probably no further trail of investigation - is it in the Police or Chelsea's interests to approach individuals and say "were you sexually abused 40 years ago by someone who has now died?" - I am not sure. 

 

(responding to ploks from the white courtesy telephone)

mmmmm...not a good look & a strategic blunder from our board (especially given what had been emerging over the last decade concerning the priesthood etc), the magnitude of which we can, for now, only speculate on so now, of course, we're in full damage control. I wonder whether the external legal firm now carrying out "an investigation" is the same firm which initially advised the board as to the options available to it at the time - being of course full disclosure as against a confidential pay-off.

anyways I imagine that this is just the start of a long saga involving many clubs that made similar confidential payments in the past & that there must be a lot of nervous club directors/former club directors out there.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/nov/30/police-opted-against-action-over-chelsea-ex-players-sex-abuse-claim?CMP=share_btn_tw

Since the compensation was paid out, chelsea have been able to secure very lucrative sponsorship deals with Yokohama, carabao and Nike worth over £100m-a-season...coincidence?

If the club chose to settle out of court and insert a confidentiality agreement that is entirely their prerogative, after all, the alleged victim didn't have to agree. However, if this was done by the club to avoid negative headlines, it was clearly a lapse in judgement. Also, if the club failed to notify the authorities (as FA and PL rules dictate), I can have very little sympathy for the club in this case. Whoever made that judgement should be sacked.

 

On a wider level, thousands of men train young boys across the country and people will now inevitably question their motives. Quite rightly it will raise alarm bells amongst parents, particularly as many young boys tour other countries with their clubs. No doubt the vast majority of these men are in it for the right reasons and this is a very unfortunate consequence for them. You only have to look at the Church to see how everybody gets tarred to a certain extent. These aren't isolated instances we're talking about. It looks like abuse in football was widespread. Obviously I'd like to think that isn't the case any more and I hope I'm right.

Don't get me wrong, i'll be absolutely disgusted with the club if turns out to be true. However, am I the only thinking that its a bit shady that the victim just accepted money and shut up? If this happened and it was so detrimental to their life I don't understand why they would go to Chelsea and say they were 'thinking' about going public unless they were looking for a pay day. If its justice they wanted, surely they'd go straight to the public a few years ago and make this all common knowledge.  

 

I'm not victim blaming or anything and i'm sorry if this offended anyone but it really does confuse me.

 

All the best to anyone that's a victim in all of this and i hope they get the justice they deserve. 

23 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Don't get me wrong, i'll be absolutely disgusted with the club if turns out to be true. However, am I the only thinking that its a bit shady that the victim just accepted money and shut up? If this happened and it was so detrimental to their life I don't understand why they would go to Chelsea and say they were 'thinking' about going public unless they were looking for a pay day. If its justice they wanted, surely they'd go straight to the public a few years ago and make this all common knowledge.  

 

I'm not victim blaming or anything and i'm sorry if this offended anyone but it really does confuse me.

 

All the best to anyone that's a victim in all of this and i hope they get the justice they deserve. 

I can understand the decision of such a victim. He might think he doesn't stand a chance in court, will not be believed by the press, in other words: get more trouble when you really don't need more. Remember, only the past couple of years there is more attention for abuse within organisations, be it the church, sports, scouting, schools, whatever. Before the recent coverage of sexual abuse in football, nobody thought it happened, so it's not strange someone choses to receive compensation and not get their names in the paper. And it's not exactly a "pay day" in the light of the seriousness, it may be needed for therapy.

Secret pay off to avoid media headlines made 2 years ago ?  we know all decisions are approved or vetoed from the very top of the Chelsea board downwards

IF CFC did not inform the FA or the Met in an attempt to 'cover it up' then they deserve all the sh*t that is coming their way, unfortunately if it is the case then we the fans have to suffer the media bollox

looks like the Toon are in a similar position, plus 350 persons have called the old bill about it happening to them, must be more clubs involved

As a parent of 3 children, the wider abuse scandal is F##king Sickening 

 

 

 

I can't believe the club would take this stance on hush money. The Graham Rix situation was bad in the way that the parents made money going to the press. The girl was under age but lied about her age in order to get into a night club. If they wanted to go to the press to highlight the issue fair enough, but not to sensationalise the issue for money.

Found this line in an article worrying.

 

'Sportsmail has learned that a number of clubs have used insurance policies and hush money to compensate victims — and stop them from speaking out about their ordeals.'

 

Supposedly this has happened at others clubs yet only ours is being dragged through the headlines at the moment.

Edited December 1, 20169 yr by Charles Ryder

43 minutes ago, Charles Ryder said:

Found this line in an article worrying.

 

'Sportsmail has learned that a number of clubs have used insurance policies and hush money to compensate victims — and stop them from speaking out about their ordeals.'

WTF, there are companies that sell insurance for the possibility that a youth coach sexually abused players?! 

I would like to think that this sort of crime is reported and is 100% transparent.

 

Looking more and more like we're in trouble. The FA have said they're going to come down hard on any club which has paid for the silence of any alleged victim, bearing in mind that club would be restricting that person from speaking out about a crime, and a very serious crime at that. The trouble we've got, if the stories are true, our present board sanctioned such a payment, so this isn't about the club of yesteryear but about now. The club haven't denied the stories and make of that what you will. I assume the club acted legally but FA and PL rules appear to have been broken and if proven we will probably get hit very hard in the pocket. Any fine however will be insignificant compared to the hit our image will take, and our image has taken some pretty serious hits in recent years but nothing compared to this I fear. My opinion of our board will plummet even further if any of this is proven true. Brace yourself folks.

2 hours ago, Charles Ryder said:

 

 

Supposedly this has happened at others clubs yet only ours is being dragged through the headlines at the moment.

 

This type of attitude needs to stop. All allegiances should be out the window as far as this is concerned.

 

If there were headlines about your brother being a rapist would you be whinging about the fact that there are loads of other rapists out there why is my brother being written about??

Pumping little boys you would think being so f**king horrendous and strange would be extremely rare, how can this be so wide spread? Wrongins...

Over 350 now coming forward.. if genuine that's very, very sad, but I can't help but feel there's a fair number of opportunists coming out now just wanting cash. Easier for people to say they were abused when the person in question is dead. surely not every one of those people are only finding the strength to talk about it now.  

Hope the truth prevails, but it's going to drag on forever now. 

This will get very messy for the club very messy

Gary Johnson says Chelsea paid him £50,000 for silence about abuse

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/dec/02/gary-johnson-says-chelsea-paid-him-50000-for-silence-about-abuse?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

We should be hauled over the coals for this and rightly so. 

Aren't all out of court settlements done in this way ?

Can't send a corpse to jail. Why would Chelsea go public about it ?

Is Johnson going to give the money to an abuse charity help line now that he has got that off his chest? 

 

1 minute ago, Blueblur said:

We should be hauled over the coals for this and rightly so. 

If the victim had already gone to the police and the police had decided not to take further action and Chelsea knew this, then perhaps it was just an oversight to include the confidentiality clause - they are all very standard in any compensation contract (for reasons that aren't around embarrassment in the press). He did say " I think that they were paying me to keep a lid on this". That doesnt really show that Chelsea actively pressured him on silence or anything like that. 

Best case scenario here is that Chelsea believed that as the police were informed and as they had settled the matter with the individual through compensation - which would have involved clear legal advice - they had done their due diligence.