By Tom Morgan
Victims of widespread racism at
Chelsea in the Eighties and Nineties
kept their abuse hidden amid fears
the main protagonist was con-
nected to the very top of the club,
according to a new report.
A Barnardo’s investigation out-
lining a dossier of “normalised”
abuse suggested youth players
believed former academy director
Gwyn Williams was protected by
his links to Graham Rix and former
chairman Ken Bates.
Williams eventually became
responsible for child protection at
Chelsea between 1999 and 2003.
The report describes how multiple
former youth players came forward
to describe how he presided over a
culture of fear.
Black players were greeted with
monkey noises on their first days at
the club. The authors of the report
also paint a grim picture of “unchal-
lenged” racism across the entire
game during the 1980s. “The con-
text during this review was one
where racism continued to be a sig-
nificant feature in society and a
regular feature in football; racism
in football was overt and in the
early 1980s was invariably unchal-
lenged,” it said.
Last night Paul Canoville, Chel-
sea’s first black player, told The
Daily Telegraph he was “shocked”
and “saddened” by some of the find-
ings, but said the club deserved
praise for their efforts to tackle rac-
ism in recent years.
Williams and Rix have previously
strongly denied allegations they
racially abused youth players. Rix
worked at Chelsea from 1993 to
2000, and Williams from 1979 to- “Barnardo’s reviewers take
the view that, whilst it appears that
Graham Rix could be aggressive
and bullying, on the evidence pre-
sented to them, he was not racially
abusive. In the view of the review-
ers, the same cannot be said of
Gwyn Williams,” read the report
into non-recent racist abuse.
According to the report, most of
the racist abuse aimed at Chelsea’s
young players took place at the
club’s former Harlington training
ground. The report claims Deep
Heat was rubbed on genitalia of
players and racist insults became
the norm. Former players said Wil-
liams was “the main person who
ran the show”.
The abuse took place in a culture
far removed from today’s standards
in football academies. “Players
were allowed to behave in a disre-
spectful manner towards other
players,” the report says. Excrement
was thrown at a sleeping player, for
example.
“Coaches at the club were lik-
ened to drill sergeants, and were
described as hardened to their
environment and pushing boys to
go ‘unchallenged’?
to the review in writing, via his
solicitors, saying that he recalled
taking details “in respect of inap-
propriate behaviour” by Heath and
says that it was reported to the then
interim manager. This is under-
stood to be Ron Suart, who died in
2015, and managed the club
between October 1974 and April- “This was the end of my
involvement in the matter,” said
Gradi. “I completely deny that I
ever attempted at any stage to
‘smooth over’ the matter.”
In his interview with Geekie,
Gradi suggested that the player’s fa-
ther did not wish to get Heath into
trouble, which “set the tone” for the
meeting and that he spoke with
Chelsea’s interim manager to in-
form him of the complaint. Gradi
told Geekie that it was a “touchy
feely type of thing ... he hadn’t been
raped or anything like that”. Asked
if he offered any apology for what
Heath had done, Gradi said: “No.
What could I apologise for?” Geek-
ie’s report concludes: “It was a lost
opportunity to expose Mr Heath
and prevent further abuse”.He adds: “I did not accept that Mr
Gradi was asked not to report the
matter. I am satisfied that he did
speak to Mr Heath.” Gradi denied
telling Heath about the complaint
but Geekie says the player was sub-
sequently subjected “to bullying
and intimidating behaviour” by
Heath. He goes on: “Mr Gradi is the
single example of a clear account of
an adult in a position of responsibil-
ity at the club informed about an
allegation in relation to Mr Heath.”
Gradi has not commented on
Geekie’s published report.Named in report: Ex-Chelsea staff
Gwyn Williams (left) and Graham RixRacism victims
kept quiet over
‘culture of fear’
achieve their best,” the report
added. “The physical training was
said to be extremely hard, the envi-
ronment was described as tough ...
A number of players recalled hear-
ing GW make racially abusive
remarks on their very first day at
the club. One player recalled hear-
ing GW ‘make monkey sounds
towards another black player’.” An-
other player was allegedly told:
“You all right shoe shine?” and
“that’s a nice new top. Have you
been out robbing old grannies
again with the rest of the darkies on
your estate?” Williams, it was
claimed, regularly split youth teams
into black players against white
players. The “n” word was regularly
heard on the training ground.
The report claimed there were
numerous accounts of comments
such as “lick your lips and I’ll stick
you to the window”. Some of those
interviewed defended Williams by
suggesting he may have been
attempting to prepare black players
for racism on the pitch. However,
exploring why it took decades for
the allegations to become public,the report added: “A number of
people interviewed said they
believed that there were close rela-
tionships between those in the
most senior positions such as
between GW [Williams] and GR
[Rix] and the chairman Ken Bates.”
The report concludes that there
was evidence he “used his position
of power and trust to ridicule and
humiliate the young people con-
cerned”.
Williams, who went on to be
technical director at Leeds United,
denies the allegations and a police
investigation concluded that there
was insufficient evidence. His law-
yer, who also represents Rix, did not
comment when approached. Bates
was unavailable. There is no sug-
gestion of wrongdoing by Bates, or
evidence that he was aware in any
way of the abuse that took place.
Chelsea said in a statement: “We
are doing, and will continue to do,
everything we can to ensure that
those boys, girls, men and women
who play for this club – and indeed
anyone who works for or with the
club – will never have to endure the
terrible experiences which these
young players suffered.”
The charity Kick It Out also
acknowledged Chelsea’s “commit-
ment to ensure that it will never
happen again”.must have known or been suspi-
cious of what he was doing,” said
one witness.
The review team wished to inter-
view Hurst and explore further
why Heath was sacked, despite re-
ports that he was “a good and effec-
tive scout” but the World Cup
winner said there was nothing toadd to an earlier telephone state-
ment. In that, he stressed that he
“did not think that he was doing a
good enough job”. He said yester-
day that he saw no reason to meet in
person to repeat the same facts.
Chelsea yesterday said that “it is
evident from the review that Heath
was a dangerous and prolific childabuser” whose “conduct was be-
yond reprehensible”. In 2017, Chel-
sea appointed Barnardo’s to review
their current safeguarding prac-
tices and all of their recommenda-
tions are being implemented.
There is no suggestion that the
board at the time of the abuse was
aware it was taking place.The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 7 August 2019 *** 5
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