Neely was sacked by Rangers after knowledge of incidents with one player came to light, and never worked in professional football again. In subsequent years, more allegations also came to light regarding Neely, including incidents at other clubs prior to him being at Rangers. Rangers allegedly reported him to the police at the time (it is impossible to expect an informal report from 30 years ago to still exist in police databases), and the boy’s father was also aware and present when Neely was confronted and sacked, given it was the player and his dad who took the issue to Rangers. There are a few things though that need to be highlighted:-
1) The small article in the Rangers News wishing Neely well in the future was clearly wrong and shouldn’t have been put to print. Whether that was deliberate or the result of a reporter with no knowledge of what had happened, we don’t know. However, given the small goldfish bowl of Scotland, the integrity of the people at our club, and the fact Neely never worked in professional football again, then it is safe to assume that word was spread by us that there was incidents with Neely and that he was to be avoided. Otherwise he would have popped up at another club, especially having been a coach with us. Ideally though, news should have filtered out from us into the wider press to make the general public aware of the incidents.
2) The player in question appears to solely blame Rangers for what happened. But surely it was the role of the boy’s father to decide whether to take the matter further with the police and press for criminal charges? Clubs can sack abusers and even notify authorities, but if there is no willingness from the parents to take the matter further at the time, and this includes parents of those knowingly abused at Celtic, then there is little any club can do with regards the pressing of criminal charges. As much as Celtic could have done so much, much more to stop the abuse, there has to be some partial blame on parents who knew but did not take the matter further, even if it was not the done thing at the time.
3) Convictions. Unless there is a criminal conviction, or a clear admission of guilt by the abuser, then it is difficult for any organisation, and again I include Celtic in this, to legally admit guilt and offer compensation. And this is where you would hope Thompson’s have done their homework in this regard in terms of cases they have taken on, as basic accusations on their own may not stand up without it having being legally proven to have happened.
4) Lastly, if it ever turns out Rangers are proven to ever acted inappropriately in any way, then I fully expect us to do the right thing by apologising to the victims and offering compensation. Nothing less will suffice.
That said, I hope every victim at every club gets some form of justice, even if it can never truly make up for the abuse they have suffered.