The Sexual Abuse Scandal in English Soccer Is Like Penn State on a Larger Scale – Slate Magazine

Andy Woodward was the first to come forward in a November interview with the Guardian, revealing that while at Crewe Alexandra in the 1980s, that club’s youth coach Barry Bennell allegedly groomed, exploited, and sexually abused him. Bennell had a house in the country set up like “a treasure trove, a child’s dream,” including “a little monkey upstairs in a cage” and “a wild cat,” to which he would lure his victims who were under his tutelage, Woodward said. “[H]e’d use football to manipulate control. If I upset him in any way, he’d drop me from the team.”