Craig Bellamy has conceded he was naive not to recognise “cheering against England” in front of English youngsters while coaching in Cardiff City’s academy could have serious ramifications, after doing so triggered an investigation into his conduct.
Bellamy, named as Wales manager on Tuesday, stepped down from his role as coach of Cardiff’s under-18s in January 2019 amid allegations of bullying and xenophobia. Bellamy, who turned 45 on Saturday, avoided punishment but the club discovered “significant concerns relating to an unacceptable coaching environment” and, as he commences his first post as a first-team manager, he insists he has learned lessons.
Bellamy denied the allegations but accepted the internal report “highlighted aspects of my coaching skills that could perhaps be improved”. At the time he apologised, adding: “If I inadvertently offended anyone then I am truly sorry.” Asked how damaging a period it was, he replied: “I’ve got to be honest, I trusted the process. I trusted the disciplinary process and respected it.
“There was a lot of stuff I didn’t know – like cheering against England in a game in front of people from England. It’s not correct. You can’t do that. I didn’t know that. I honestly thought … it was just [second] nature for me. I didn’t understand how a young 18-year-old English boy might have felt.
“I didn’t understand, so I apologised for that. There were a lot of things like that I thought might sound right, but it actually could be a deal and I didn’t realise. So, I have to take that into account as well and I did. There’s a lot of stuff I looked at and should have been aware of.”
Bellamy declined to return to his role at Cardiff after the conclusion of the investigation and joined Anderlecht, working with the Belgian club’s under-21s before later working as an assistant manager to Vincent Kompany, whom he followed to Burnley in July 2022.
“The message for every youth coach who goes into coaching is: ‘Please, be mindful. Please really do your homework and [on] the levels you’re going into and what you allow,’” he said. “I wasn’t dealing with 12-, 13- or 14-year-olds [working at Cardiff]. These were 17-, 18-year-olds. If you’re in school, then obviously you don’t swear. But I thought, after school, maybe, you know, in that environment, I could turn a blind eye to it. But you can’t do that. I have reflected on what happened, I reflect on everything.”
Bellamy’s first match in charge of Wales is in September at home to the Euro 2024 quarter-finalists Turkey in the Nations League. Wales are targeting qualification for the 2026 World Cup and Euro 2028 after missing out on this summer’s finals in Germany. Bellamy rejected the chance to remain on the staff at Burnley under the new manager, Scott Parker, to succeed Robert Page, his former Wales teammate.
“I didn’t realise how important it [the Wales job] was to me, maybe because I’d been living in England and Belgium,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if it was something I wanted to do – I’m not here for financial reasons and a lot of managers would leave this role to go to a top-end club – but it was the emotional attachment to it, the more I got involved in it just became clear it was something I wanted to do.”
