Bristow was stupid and slightly uneducated, but nothing more , some of the comments on here and particularly twitter make me despair more then the comments of a pissed 60 year old man from another generation..... people shown more loathing to him then the actual offender. when the news broke, my first comment was why did nobody tell their father, uncle, older brother to go kick the **** out of him, uneducated maybe but I said it, just not to 100,000 followers.. maybe I should be hung too. He went too far , but he is famous for being a wind up merchant and there is always some people who it has nothing to do with waiting to be offended unfortunately
Bristow's comments are atrocious but the way to deal with them is to educate, not shout down. The attitude of Bristow when it comes to child abuse (and sexual abuse in general) - that of trying to put themselves in the victims' shoes and coming up with a make-believe response in which you'd have behaved in a clear and coherent fashion - isn't an uncommon one, though I do think it's becoming less and less so. I know that Brian Moore (rugby union) isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I'd strongly recommend to anyone the section in his autobiography (Beware of the Dog) where he recounts the sexual abuse he received as a schoolboy from a teacher and the effect it has had on him for the rest of his life. He was one of the most fearless English sportsmen I've ever seen on a pitch - who'd think nothing of staring down the front row of the All Blacks' scrum - openly admitting that he was still terrified of a feeble, old man somewhere in West Yorkshire who he hadn't seen in a long time. I don't think there's a person on the planet would have described Moore as 'a wimp'. Every victim of abuse will react differently to what's happened to them; there's no right way to deal with it, but those who've never had to go through such a thing simply will not be able to empathise with those who have or second guess how they themselves would react. I hope, when this issue has died down for Bristow, that one of the victims explains to him what they went through, or someone sends him the account of one of the victims of sexual abuse. Education changes attitudes much more effectively than outrage.
I think I might report that as a Junior league player , I was told not to dribble as much and that my Tackle was extraordinary. Some one has to answer to that.
Had a look at that page a few months ago and barely recognised a name,though as i did'nt live anywhere near the school and never really kept in touch with many i'm not that surprised.
350 victims have now come forward to report child sexual abuse within football clubs. It looks like this one's got a way to run yet and it's not going to just be just about Bennell.
Greater Manchester Police say their investigation into historical child sex offences in youth football has now identified 10 suspects.
I do get where you're coming from with that. Good post. I dont agree with Eric's opinion but he's entitled to it. Its the sort of thing that would be said in the lobby when i worked on building sites years ago.
Bristow is clearly a clueless buffoon, and even worse a cockney ****. He has no inkling of the psychological damage that the victims have suffered. He seems to think it's like getting a clout off the neighbourhood bully, and then you can go back a few years later and give him one back when you're grown a few inches. That's the dangers of Twitter for you...too many arseholes spouting **** to countless folk itching to be angry and outraged about something. Shame Sky have caved in to the baying mob. The BBC have been fanning the flames of this sad and sordid outbreak of ***** ism, and they seem to be almost willing the numbers to keep rising, as they are in the driving seat with this story.
I think it was the Guardian who broke it. As for the numbers rising, if those who've been abused feel that they can now safely speak on what seems to have been a widespread issue in football, then all the better. We can't change what's happened, but we can try to create an environment for stopping this in the future. The best way for that to happen is by this case being in the public eye and people openly discussing what has happened to them.
I remember playing them when Pete Skipper and Paul Oberg played for them. Would he have been involved then?
Chelsea have now been accused of making £50k hush money payments to ex-players who accused one of their scouts of similar offences.
All this really does beggar belief, do these guys who perpetrated these acts go into football because they knew they would have access to young boys, or did they turn into these perverts whilst being in their company?. I guess it will turn out that they themselves were abused as a child and so the story goes on.
