NOTTS County insists the club will not tolerate bullying – as police investigate allegations of racial abuse at Meadow Lane.
The Professional Footballers' Association says it is supporting a group of young Magpies' players in raising allegations of bullying by some members of the coaching staff, who it says have now resigned.
It is understood the allegations, some of a racist nature, were made against youth coach Brett Adams and lead foundation coach Lee Broster.
In a club statement, Notts said: "Notts County would like to reiterate the club's zero tolerance policy on any form of bullying or intimidation.
"As a club, Notts County are committed to offering a safe and enjoyable environment for all of its employees, both playing and administrative and want every member of staff to feel comfortable in reporting any incidents that contravene this strategy.
"Recent incidents have brought the club's procedures for dealing with bullying and intimidation under scrutiny, but we are delighted to have received praise for our actions in such matters from both the PFA and the League Managers' Association (LMA).
"Both organisations were involved throughout a recent disciplinary issue and were impressed with how the club dealt with the issues raised, co-operating fully to ensure the most stringent possible investigation was launched.
"Whilst we cannot comment on the specifics of such actions, we would like to assure everyone associated with Notts County that we take any allegations of inappropriate behaviour seriously and will always investigate fully any accusations brought against anyone involved with the club."
In a separate statement, attributed to PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor OBE, the PFA said: "The PFA has been working with and supporting a group of young players at Notts County in raising allegations of bullying by some members of the coaching staff. Some of these allegations were also of a racist nature.
"We take any bullying, intimidation and racist behaviour extremely seriously and work with the relevant bodies in football to do all we can to deal with such allegations thoroughly and ultimately seek to eradicate these problems.
"We have a duty of care towards the players and in this situation we made sure that they were given immediate assistance, which included being accompanied and represented at every stage of the process by the PFA.
"There is a proper process in place to deal with incidents of this nature and that process was followed by all concerned.
"Those members of the coaching staff took the decision to resign just before a disciplinary hearing and it is obviously not possible to prevent someone from resigning in these circumstances.
"However, the effect of their collective decision to resign was that the players were able to put this behind them and continue with their careers.
"Our first priority is protecting the players at all times and they were satisfied with the way in which the matter was dealt with."
As previously reported in the Post, the Black Lawyer's Association has also complained to Notts Police about the alleged abuse.
