Bohemian Football Club has asked anyone with information relating to an allegation by former first team manager Roddy Collins that a volunteer at the club had abused a junior player to contact the club or the Garda.

It says that an unrelated incident involving the volunteer, Colin Goggin, and a young boy unconnected with the club that was alleged to have taken place in Dalymout Park was reported to the Garda by the boy’s father and investigated. The club severed its connections with Goggin while that investigation was taking place.

The club says board members and other officials involved at the time of the alleged incident Collins described in an interview with the Irish Daily Star deny they were told by the then manager of the event he says he witnessed.

Goggin was 52 when he was convicted last year at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of sexually abusing two boys he had come into contact with through athletics.

In the article, Collins is quoted as saying he reported the incident and objected to Goggin taking part in an overnight trip. Bohemians say their own investigation is continuing and that they are in contact with the Garda about how the issue with Goggin was concluded.

The chairman of the players’ union, the PFAI, Stephen McGuiness, has said there are bound to be cases of abuse in Irish football and that he would not be surprised if players start to speak about their own experiences now the issue has been brought into the spotlight in Britain.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that there would have been cases, not just in football but in all sports here,” he says.