Matt Le Tissier has spoken about the 'very, very wrong' behaviour of youth football officer Bob Higgins while he was a young player at Southampton.
The former England midfielder told the BBC that he received a 'naked massage' from Higgins.
Everyone was kind of naked and getting thrown on this bed... and a very quick massage - it was uncomfortable. It's very, very wrong for a start - looking back on it, you think it's wrong but as a young boy you saw everyone else doing it, you thought 'is this normal'? Clearly it wasn't.
It's pretty disgusting. 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'.
Higgins we left Southampton in 1989 due to concerns regarding his behaviour. The Guardian reported on Monday that concerns regarding Higgins had been raised in a letter sent to clubs from the Football League in 1989.
For the record. Ive never felt like ive been abused. Still dont. Please dont feel sorry for me, im all good 👍🏻 just stated what happened
— Matt Le Tissier🌸 (@mattletiss7) December 6, 2016
Higgins faced charges of sexual offences against boys in 1992 but was cleared.
In recent days, the BBC reported that six former footballers have named Higgins to police.
Le Tissier added that he hopes the bravery of players such as Andy Woodward will encourage others to talk about their experiences.
I would like to think the bravery of the boys that have come out will encourage everyone else who experienced those kind of things and the people who were the perpetrators of these things get brought to justice.
