Sex abuse claims at 55 English clubs

AFP, LONDON: Fifty-five league and non league clubs have been referred to police in the child sex abuse scandal that has shattered English football's image a source told The Observer newspaper on Sunday.
In other developments English football's embattled governing body the Football Association (FA) have been accused in The Sunday Mirror by Russell Davy, a former Charlton Athletic youth goalkeeper, of not replying to his letter in 1986 warning them of abuse by scout Eddie Heath.
Heath had moved onto Charlton after being dismissed by Chelsea -- not for child abuse but for 'spending a lot of his time in his office, decorating and cooking meals for the schoolboy players' -- who made a controversial payment in 2015 to Gary Johnson, a player abused by him in the 1970's, but under condition of a gagging order.
Johnson has since gone public and the club -- whose payment according to the Sunday Telegraph was authorised by owner Roman Abramovich's senior adviser Marina Granovskaia and two other board members -- issued a profuse apology to him on Saturday.

Sex abuse claims at 55 English clubs

AFP, LONDON: Fifty-five league and non league clubs have been referred to police in the child sex abuse scandal that has shattered English footballs image a source told The Observer newspaper on Sunday. In other developments English footballs embattled governing body the Football Association (FA) have been accused in The Sunday Mirror by Russell Davy, a former Charlton Athletic youth goalkeeper, of not replying to his letter in 1986 warning them of abuse by scout Eddie Heath. Heath had moved onto Charlton after being dismissed by Chelsea -- not for child abuse but for spending a lot of his time in his office, decorating and cooking meals for the schoolboy players -- who made a controversial payment in 2015 to Gary Johnson, a player abused by him in the 1970s, but under condition of a gagging order. Johnson has since gone public and the club -- whose payment according to the Sunday Telegraph was authorised by owner Roman Abramovichs senior adviser Marina Granovskaia and two other board members -- issued a profuse apology to him on Saturday.