“Football in Scotland is massive. Governed by the Scottish Football Association it has been denying the victims of sex abuse within the game justice and peace despite publicly admitting their duty of care for young players previously.
“Since the scandal broke nearly 3 years ago the countless victims were initially encouraged to come forward and breach the silence within which they have suffered for over 30 years.
“Having had the courage to come forward and tell the horrific testimonies of the abuse to the lawyers, politicians and the official investigators, they now are being ignored and the agony prolonged needlessly by the faceless solicitors and insurance company of the SFA,” wrote Malcolm Rodger on the Just Giving page he has set up.
“Weʼre raising £20,000 to Bring justice & peace to victims of sex abuse in Scottish Football. We ask football fans to donate less than the cost of a half pint of beer,” he said.
On Sunday evening The Celtic Star introduced Malcolm’s initiative to the Celtic support and in an extensive feature he explained why he believes that this is the route for the survivors of these horrible crimes committed by those monsters under the cover of organised Scottish football participation. The article is important so please have a read – Malcolm Rodger’s Campaign to Bring Justice and Peace to Scottish Football’s Victims – HERE.
Malcolm also revealed just how badly the survivors of the Celtic Boys Club scandal are being treated by the no-win-no fee legal firm Thompsons.Their problem seems to be that if they lose then they are going to have to pay the other side’s fees – that’s the insurance company’s legal fees – as their clients – quite understandably – are not in a position to fund this.
So instead they try to hustle Celtic into a forced settlement manipulating the media in every way possible, a recent example would be Alex Thomson’s 2-part report on Channel 4 which relied extensively on the agenda set out by these ‘solicitors’.
That fact that Alex Thomson got so much wrong in his report, the nonsense about the old Pools office and linking Celtic opening doors in England due to a link to a monster which would not actually happen for almost two decades, seemed desperate stuff. Thomson also moaned about Peter Lawwell not speaking to him – he even went out to his house to ring the bell – yet saw no irony in refusing to engage with The Celtic Star when we pointed out his mistakes to him.
He was not interested.
What of the victims of the Rangers child abuse scandal? They were told to contact the liquidator of the old club and presumably become the last creditors on the long and extensive list, with the expectation of a few pennies in the pound being eventually paid out.
Where was the indignation, the outrage, the shame from the Rangers supporters who remain transfixed by the issue of child abuse in Scottish football if and only if it leads to Celtic’s door?
Their position seems to be – victims of child abuse at Rangers? Beat it, contact the liquidators, we’re a new ‘holding company”.
Victims of child abuse at any other club or organisation involved in Scottish football – not interested.
Victims of child abuse at Celtic Boys club? Let’s go over to Follow Follow and count the pages they have devoted to this subject…
The three articles above and below this one in the middle range from 39 replies to 212 and the from 1k views to 6k – that’s when they are talking about football and their team the Rangers. Number of pages on these threads varies from 2 to 6.
The post in the middle is titled “Celtic face threat of multimillion pound compensation claim (The Times) and look at the numbers –
TWENTY ONE THOUSAND REPLIES
TWO MILLION VIEWS
FIVE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE PAGES
That right there is the extent of their obsession with child abuse at Celtic Boys Club.
Where is the page about child abuse at Rangers and the comments about the current club’s treatment of the victims of child abuse at Rangers FC re telling them to contact the liquidators?
On Sunday evening The Celtic Star brought Malcolm Rodger’s campaign as described above to the attention of the Celtic support. We did so after considering the implications – we would inevitably be targeted by the wolf-pack across the city for instance – and we were also aware that this has been a difficult subject for Celtic Supporters to discuss. Yet every single time it has Celtic Supporters have always wanted the victims to receive justice, regardless of where it was perpetrated.
And we also should point out that the campaign is entirely Malcolm’s – who is a Rangers supporter and indeed a poster on the Rangers site mentioned above. As a survivor he has no time for this who wish to weaponise this issue for their own ends. He described them “clowns”. He has told us this when we interviewed him at the time of Thomson’s hatchet-job on Celtic. which was of course lapped up on FF.
Last night The Celtic Star was subjected to vile abuse from those obsessed with this issue who follow the team we are playing on Sunday. They don’t like The Celtic Star supporting Malcolm’s campaign and they hate the fact that Celtic Supporters are now donating to the target of £20,000 so that an action can be brought against the Scottish FA and this in turn will give their insurance company a decision to make.
Malcolm has pointed out that no abuse was ever recorded at a club after a player turned professional and that all organised football – including crucially at boys level – comes under the authority of the game’s governing body, the Scottish FA.
THIS MEANS THAT EVERY SURVIVOR WILL HAVE A ROUTE TO JUSTICE FROM MALCOLM’S CAMPAIGN.
The problem that the Rangers survivors have is that the liquidation of Rangers FC in 2012 effectively kills their legal route stone dead.
The problem that the Celtic Boys Club survivors have is that they have a legal team who according to Malcolm have actually done nothing at all about pursuing the matter legally but have simply tried to embarrass Celtic FC, whose Insurers will care not a jot.
The problem will all the other survivors is that no-one else appears to care much about their situation.
Then Malcolm Rodger stepped forward. He explained the difficulties that the survivors are having in moving their potential claims forward and he has identified that the Scottish FA had the ultimate responsibility to safeguard these then young people when playing organised football.
Last night Niall J gave an update on all of this and you can read this article – Malcolm Rodger and The Celtic Star appear to have Ruffled Feathers on Follow Follow HERE.
This morning Malcolm got back in touch. Here’s what he had to say…
David
First of all thanks once again for putting the message out there for us. I realise the compromising situation it must of put you in but I had faith in you to do the right thing and you certainly delivered.
The fund certainly saw a huge leap in frequency of donations thanks to your article.
Messages came in ‘from your side of Glasgow’ of joint support and admiration for what I am trying to achieve.
I hope other folk in the press remember the solidarity you have shown me and others by promoting the campaign which will hopefully allow the full story to come out – total transparency and the base on which the future of Scottish football can prosper.
If you fancy a pint before the match on Sunday let me know.
regards
Malcolm
If you would like to make a donation to Malcolm’s fund that ultimately could bring justice and closure for all the survivors of child abuse in Scottish football you can do so HERE.
And finally a few points on the game on Sunday. If the Celtic fans sing for instance ‘Grace’ at Ibrox then they are technically in breach of the SPFL’s Unacceptable Conduct policy which specifically targets chants relating to our club’s Irish heritage.
However when the Rangers fans chant about child abuse that is NOT covered by the SPFL’s Unacceptable Conduct Policy.
The Celtic Star will be contacting every club – including the Rangers – and will let you know the responses we get and whether they will support updating the Unacceptable Conduct policy to include chanting about child abuse.
And there will be no Celtic Fan Media photographer at Ibrox on Sunday. Geo was told he would have to call Jim Traynor to try to justify getting a photographer’s pass. He has been trying to get Traynor on the phone but he never takes his calls. Funny that.
Willie Vass is the Rangers fans photographer. We will be asking Celtic to deny him access to Celtic Park until this matter is resolved. Wonder if they’ll listen?
Malcolm Rodger’s Campaign to Bring Justice and Peace to Scottish Football’s Victims | The Celtic Star https://t.co/8ijRWJI74F
— The Celtic Star Editor (@CelticStarMag) March 8, 2020
