Making an ‘ordeal’ over Matt Le Tissier’s naked massage
Former Southampton FC “legend” Matt Le Tissier is the latest name linked to the stories of historical sexual abuse in football. Le Tissier claims he was given a “naked massage” by former youth team coach Bob Higgins. The Sun says “at least six Southampton starlets” have made complaints about former Saints youth team coach Bob Higgins.
The Mail leads with “LE TISSIER: MY NAKED ORDEAL”. Says Le Tissier to the BBC: “Everyone was kind of naked and getting thrown on this bed…and a very quick massage. It was uncomfortable.” He adds: “You look back and it was wrong.”
It does sound odd and unnerving. But to put it in the same bracket as the horrors endured by victims of people like child abuser and former football coach Barry Bennell is also odd. Le Tissier never says he was abused. He tweets: “For the record, I’ve never felt like I’ve been abused. Still don’t… I’m all good just state what happened.”
The moment has not defined his life. Was it an ordeal? The papers all agree with the Mail that it was.
The Daily Star’s front-page headline yells “Matt nude ‘rub’ anger”. Inside we read, “Le Tiss Ordeal Fury.”
Does Le Tissier sound angry or furious? Not at all. He sounds measured and thoughtful. “It’s pretty disgusting,” he says. “What went on is not normal behaviour. When you hear the stories of naked soapy massages, hairy bum competitions… you look back at it now and think ‘hang on, what was going on?’. Obviously boys talk at that age, they take the Mickey, it kind of gets covered up as a bit of banter at that stage. But as you grow into an adult, you look at it and think ‘that’s not right’.”
The Sun leads with: “Matt Le Tissier BombShell – Youth coach gave me disgusting naked massage.”
Over pages 54 and 55, readers are told of the “SAINTS LEGEND’S ORDEAL”.
The media all agree: it was an ordeal.
On the Mirror’s front page we see Le Tissier. On Page 11, down in paragraph 5, we read: “Le Tissier said he never felt like he’d been abused.” He’s a victim but unaware he was one? The Sun goes further: “Le Tissier said he was not abused.”
Having read of Le Tissier’s “ordeal”, over pages 74 and 75, the Mail says, “90 minutes in dark room with coach still haunts me.” We hear from former Southampton youth team player Les Cleevely. What happened to him in that room should be the matter for the police, not for our titillation? “Les Cleevely does not elaborate greatly on what happened during one and a half hours in a darkened room with… Bob Higgins, but the affect it had on his life is profound,” says the paper.
It’s not until paragraph twelve that we get to know about Higgins’ alleged crimes. In 1992, he was “cleared of sexual abuse charges”. The Mail says he has “declined to comment on the latest claims surrounding paedophilia in football, but denies all allegations of abuse”.
We are told that at age 13, Cleevely claims he was given “a soapy massage by Higgins”. Les Cleevely then says: “My hour-and-a-half experience in a dark room was horrendous in itself but to have anything else happen is the stuff of nightmares.”
We are left fearing and imagining, but not knowing.
And the fear is fanned and spread by Harry Redknapp. “Rumours were going round at that time and there was a programme I watched where this young guy spoke about Bob Higgins and the type of stuff he was dong with kids at Southampton and I thought that would be the end of him,” says Redknapp. The paper then adds, ‘Redknapp was adamant there “must have been people at Saints who heard rumours about Higgins”.’
But through the fog of suspicion settling on everyone at Southampton FC, Redknapp then adds: “But until you can actually prove something or there’s a bit of evidence, it’s very difficult.”
Well, yes. Claims need to be investigated. Barriers to justice, charges, trials and verdicts navigated. What we have is suspicion. We are being invited to mistrust everyone. What happened in those 90 minutes should be in the hands of the police.
What we want is to get to the truth and for justice to be done and seen to be done – not for everyone who has ever worked in football to be a suspect.
Posted: 7th, December 2016 | In: Sports, Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
