Dark stories of the man in gaberdine
IF Barry Bennell was the epitome of the successful-looking Seventies footballer then John Broome, the other man named by Manchester City yesterday as being under investigation over allegations of historic offences against junior players, was definitely not.
Bennell was sun-tanned, always seemed to be photographed wearing shorts or a tracksuit, and had curly-permed, blond hair. I never once saw John Broome wearing anything other than a navy blue gaberdine coat. In fact in Seventies Manchester he was the only adult I ever saw wearing a gaberdine.
Broome was the manager of the junior football team which my brother and I played for in the early Seventies in Manchester, Whitehill FC, and had been in charge when the side operated as one of Manchester City’s junior teams and comprised youngsters scouted from all over the Manchester area.
In those far off days, City used Cheadle Town’s ground as the base for the youth-team games, and my father and I would shelter in the old wooden stand, which reeked of the liniment the players wore, to watch my brother and his team-mates try to impress the City coaches enough to be offered schoolboy forms, the first step on the road to becoming a professional player.
Broome had close-cropped hair unfashionable clothes, along with the ever-present gaberdine, and did not look like a dynamic football coach.
I began playing for the team a couple of years later while still a teenager, but they were no longer associated with City. There were several stories about why the break happened.
One was that the parents of a couple of the better players had banded together and formed a clique to get rid of Broome. There were also some darker rumours that emerged later that City had decided they did not want to be connected with Broome.
As the side began playing open-age football, Broome left the club and the role was taken over by two parents. The side kept together as Whitehill FC for more than 10 years after breaking from City. Former City keeper Eric Nixon played for the team, as did ex-City professional Steve Kinsey.
Rumours about Broome began to circulate but no one ever came forward with any concrete proof he had done anything wrong and I never met anyone who said they had been abused by Broome. Since hearing that Broome’s activities are to be investigated, I have been hoping the rumours are untrue.
The boys I played football with are now men in their late fifties or sixties. If any of them were victims of Broome, they have spent the best part of a lifetime keeping quiet about it and may not want to upset their families.
That is the sad thing in cases like this and, as in the case of Bennell, it is exactly what abusers rely on.
What is even sadder is that one of my friends may have been a victim and felt too scared or ashamed to share what had happened to him.
He didn’t look like a coach