Just read an interesting article in the Guardian about the initiation practices at Old Trafford. They are using United's name as clickbait, as clearly this goes on at other clubs or did go on in the past anyway. At first my reaction was, oh, another whiney left wing Guardian article. But when you actually read some of it it's pretty sick and clearly shouldn't have been something young players were subjected to.
"In football, they know this as the culture of the initiation ceremony. Or hazing, as they know it in the United States. Except it was not a one-off event, as part of a getting‑to‑know‑you process, but more a standard part of life at Old Trafford. And, however degrading it might have been, it was often better to do what was required than risk one of the forfeits put together by the older apprentices or first-year pros.
One was known as “The Lap”, where the boy would be put on a treatment bed, looking through the hole, while the players lined up to kick a ball at his face. Sometimes it would be a flurry of punches to deliver a dead arm, or whacking someone over the head with a ball wrapped in a towel, a practice known as “The Bong”. One apprentice was dressed up in several layers of tracksuits and barricaded into the sauna. Others were bundled into an industrial tumble drier and sent for a spin. There is even the story of one boy, the smallest in his year group, being tied up, gagged and put in a kitbag to be taken to Old Trafford on the bus."
Full article -
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...assage-built-some-characters-but-broke-others
"In football, they know this as the culture of the initiation ceremony. Or hazing, as they know it in the United States. Except it was not a one-off event, as part of a getting‑to‑know‑you process, but more a standard part of life at Old Trafford. And, however degrading it might have been, it was often better to do what was required than risk one of the forfeits put together by the older apprentices or first-year pros.
One was known as “The Lap”, where the boy would be put on a treatment bed, looking through the hole, while the players lined up to kick a ball at his face. Sometimes it would be a flurry of punches to deliver a dead arm, or whacking someone over the head with a ball wrapped in a towel, a practice known as “The Bong”. One apprentice was dressed up in several layers of tracksuits and barricaded into the sauna. Others were bundled into an industrial tumble drier and sent for a spin. There is even the story of one boy, the smallest in his year group, being tied up, gagged and put in a kitbag to be taken to Old Trafford on the bus."
Full article -
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...assage-built-some-characters-but-broke-others
That’s sound