Rangers deny abuse ‘cover-up’ after BBC investigation claim
RANGERS Football Club has slammed allegations the club “covered up” the reasons for sacking a former youth coach accused of child sex offences and failed to report accusations of improper conduct to the police.
It comes after an alleged victim of disgraced Gordon Neely broke his silence on the incident that led to his sacking in 1991 following a complaint raised by his concerned parents.
Rangers have consistently said they also reported Neely to the police, but new evidence uncovered by the BBC from a club newspaper suggests they took a different public position.
Neely was reportedly dismissed following a confrontation with manager Graeme Souness, during which he confessed to the allegations.
But the BBC’s Disclosure investigation has since obtained an article in the club’s newspaper that makes no mention of the circumstances surrounding his departure, wishing him “every success in the future”.
The man who made the complaint against the former coach also cast doubt on whether the club reported the incident to police. However, in a statement released on Thursday evening, a Rangers spokesperson attacked the BBC’s coverage, branding it “shameful nonsense”.
The man, referred to as ‘John,’ told the BBC he was targeted by when he was 14 after being ordered into his office for an alleged breach of discipline. He alleges Neely told him: “There’s two ways we can deal with this…I can go and tell your parents and you’ll never play for Rangers again. Or we can do it my way which is that I’ll take you in this office, pull your trousers down, and spank your bum.”
He added Neely then pulled his pants down and bent him over his knee, but stopped short of striking him.
John said he told his parents, who phoned Ibrox and were invited to a meeting with then manager and assistant manager, Graeme Souness and Walter Smith.
Neely later confessed and Souness sacked him on the spot.
A Rangers spokesman said: “Rangers based its prior description as to what occurred on trusted firsthand accounts from those with personal knowledge of what took place and the appropriate steps taken at that time. To suggest, as BBC Scotland has done, that these are invalidated by a short, filler piece in the Rangers News written almost 30 years ago by someone who clearly had no knowledge of the events, or the reasons for Neely’s sacking is nonsense.
“Rangers will do all it can to assist in offering support and counselling to anyone affected.”