FAMILIES UNITE AGAINST ‘BULLY’ BELLAMY

FAMILIES of former Cardiff City academy players who claim their sons were bullied by Craig Bellamy have joined forces with the help of a lawyer and support from the PFA to present evidence against the Under 18s coach. The group came forward after

Sportsmail broke the story earlier this month of a complaint against Bellamy by a player currently contracted to the club. They want to see the former Wales captain, 39, removed from academy-age coaching in a bid to prevent other young players from suffering like they say their sons did. They will provide statements through a lawyer this week rather than deal directly with Cardiff’s head of safeguarding Rob Cronick, who has been tasked with leading the investigation. The families are concerned that Cronick is also a coach within the academy. The group hope that by engaging a law firm, a move supported by the PFA, it will encourage others to come forward as they believe many have been scared to speak out against Bellamy and other coaches. One father told us: ‘I believe there is a real problem at Cardiff’s academy and it runs deeper than Bellamy. There is no accountability from above, the academy needs seriously investigating in terms of the number of boys who are becoming deeply unhappy.’ His son claims Bellamy called him a ‘f ****** snitch’ and ‘s***house’ after he made a formal complaint of bullying against another coach. In a grievance letter of November 2016, seen by

Sportsmail, the player listed allegations against U23s coach Jarred Harvey. One of the accusations of verbal bullying was that Harvey told the teen he’d had a ‘f ****** holocaust’ in front of team-mates after a mistake in a game. Bellamy (right) officially joined the academy a few weeks later and both the player and his parents became uncomfortable with his language and behaviour. They raised concerns about Bellamy in the grievance meeting dealing with their original complaint against Harvey, which centred on allegations of abusive and aggressive language. The parents later spoke to academy education officer Steve Ellis, who was in the meeting, and say he told them he had warned Bellamy and Harvey about their conduct. The player’s father said: ‘I did not take matters any further as I was assured the bullying would stop. ‘However, Bellamy then called my son, “The f ****** little snitch who sent in the letter. You are a f ****** s***house”. Bellamy asked him why he had to get his parents involved. I could not believe this. ‘There was then an incident before an FA Youth Cup game when Bellamy went around the dressing room shaking players’ hands. He got to my son and said, “Na, not you mate”. The man has no boundaries.’ The player, who had been in the academy since the age of 10, said: ‘Bellamy made my life a misery after that. I didn’t want to play football.’ The father added: ‘They sent him to train with younger age groups and he was isolated. It’s disgusting. Boys should be having the time of their lives playing football but our son was coming home in tears. ‘It’s too late now for my son. This is about preventing other boys and parents going through what we did.’ Bellamy denies the allegations. Neither Bellamy nor Harvey commented last night.