Spain's Atletico Madrid Football Club cut ties with its former youth coach and one of the founders of the club's youth setups after he admitted to sexually abusing a boy, the club said in a statement Thursday.

In a written statement, the club said that it cut all the ties with 88-year-old coach Friar Manuel Brinas, who sexually abused a boy in his charge at the Catholic boarding school where he lived and worked.

The club also announced the launch of an in-house investigation of Brinas' years of work, regardless of the fact that sexual harassment incidents in the 1970s have not been linked to the club so far, the statement said.

"We strongly condemn such movements and demonstrate our full commitment to these very serious events," the statement said.

The club said it is in "total shock" as there were "no grounds for the slightest suspicion," adding that "on the contrary, as it is known to the public, he was very respected in and out of Atletico Madrid."

Brinas confessed the allegations and told Spanish daily El Pais that it happened "once, maybe twice" in the mid-1970s and that he "stopped immediately."

The newspaper also published an interview with two people who were sexually assaulted by Brinas in 1973 and 1975, highlighting Brinas' testimony does not square with the accounts of the victims.