Families unite in fight against ‘bully’ Bellamy

AND THEY ARE BACKED BY PFA

THE 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 their 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 academyage coaching in a bid to prevent other young players suffering like they say their sons did.

They will provide detailed 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, although the former detective chief inspector has told us his investigation will be ‘professional and effective’ and has promised parents there will be no cover-up.

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 players have been scared to speak out against Bellamy and other coaches. They also feel previous complaints were not handled correctly. One father said: ‘I believe there is a real problem at Cardiff’s academy and it runs deeper than Bellamy. There is no accountability from above. Allegations have been made previously and swept under the carpet. ‘The academy needs seriously investigating in terms of the number of boys who are becoming deeply unhappy.’ His son claims Bellamy (left) called him a ‘f****** snitch’ and ‘ s*** house’ after he made a formal complaint of bullying against another coach. In a grievance letter seen by Sportsmail from November 2016 and addressed to academy manager James McCarthy, the player listed a series of allegations against Under 23s coach Jarred Harvey.

One of the accusations of verbal bullying was that Harvey told the teenager he’d had a ‘f****** holocaust’ in front of his team-mates after he made a mistake in a game.

Bellamy officially joined the academy a few weeks later and both the player and his parents became uncomfortable with his language and behaviour. They raised their 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, and say he told them he had warned Bellamy and Harvey about their conduct. The player’s father said: ‘I did not take matters 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 hands. He got to my son and said, “Nah, not you mate”. This man has no boundaries.’ Bellamy vehemently denies this. The player, who had been in the academy since the age of eight and was capped by Wales at youth level, told us: ‘Bellamy made my life a misery after that. I didn’t even want to play football. The incident with not shaking my hand was humiliating.’

The father added: ‘They sent him to train with younger age groups and he was isolated. I think they did it to demoralise him. It’s disgusting.

‘Boys should be having the time of their lives playing football at that age but our son was coming home in tears. It’s too late for my son, this is about preventing other boys and parents going through what we did.’

Bellamy denies all the allegations. Harvey did not comment.