Kevin Kilbane joined Friday's OTB AM and gave his take on the news of the conviction of serial paedophile Barry Bennell.
The former Manchester City scout was convicted of 50 counts of sexual abuse against 12 victims and is due to be sentenced on Monday.
Speaking to Adrian Barry, the former Irish international said: "I was listening to you before about the compensation claims as well - it looks like football is going to have serious compensation claims further down the line - whatever total it will be, it's irrelevant now to what has happened to people's lives - it's been a disgrace.
"There's a few things I wanted to touch on when I'd listened to you earlier on. It's the responsibility of the clubs here and what has happened - Man City ignored warnings dating back to 1979 regarding Barry Bennell - now this is something when you start to look at the bigger picture here - it starts to become even more of a disgrace.
"There are serious questions that need to be answered quickly by those in authority in football" @kdkilbane77 discusses whether clubs failed in their duties to Barry Bennell's victims. Listen back to @OffTheBallAM here https://t.co/5KDErVXEoP pic.twitter.com/jEL79eW8vK
— Off The Ball (@offtheball) February 16, 2018
"Dario Gradi, another one, who I don't think has been mentioned last year and the responsibility that Crewe Alexandra within this one. Dario Gradi wrote a character reference for Barry Bennell in 1994 when he was arrested in Jacksonville - around six cases of child abuse.
"Also on his character witness - 58 other players and coaches wrote character references or contributed to the character reference at that time when he was arrested. Who was on that? Criag Hignett, who he would know. Rob Jones, who he would know and two other players - Andy Woodward and Steve Walters - they were two of the players that provided part of that reference - were they made to from Crewe Alexandria? - I don't know.
"But the only other thing that I saw in the stories this week - Hamilton Smith, who was a Crewe Alexandra board member at that time from 1986 to the early 1990s - he called two specific meetings, one which was held in Dario Gradi's office in relation to Barry Bennell where he spoke about the real concern he was having with Barry Bennell looking after kids.
"Crewe Alexandra, I don't think, have come out of this looking very well at all.
"Of course yeah, they've tried to support the families but Dario Gradi is one who has been recognised - he's almost considered a hall of famer for what he has done to the game but he has been connected with Barry Bennell since their time at Chelsea together and I think there are serious questions that need to be asked.
"It's not for me to be say that Dario Gradi is in anyway involved in this but these claims that have been made against Bennell go back to the '70s - let alone what we've seen in the last year/18 months so I think this scandal is totally disgraceful and there are serious questions for the people in authority within football that need to answer these questions quickly," he added.
The full OTB AM Podcast is available here:
