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Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 7, 201975
time? Yet Geekie’s request makes
plain the unanswered question.
Witnesses have claimed Heath was
indulged because he was good at
his job. Hurst’s version challenges
this. Is it not, therefore, a loose
end worth pulling?
Heath won a wrongful dismissal
case against Chelsea in 1980 in
which Hurst provided evidence.
Despite Heath claiming he was
sacked at the end of a two-hour
discussion about his performance,
the tribunal noted there was
‘meagre’ detail of what was said in
the meeting.
Shouldn’t Hurst have filled in
those gaps, out of courtesy to
Heath’s victims — in a way his
statement yesterday did not?
For other reasons, too. In the
years when Heath’s influence was
greatest, football clubs were
almost a secret society.
Record-keeping was poor. Indi-
viduals — certainly those involved
in youth development — seemed
to orbit the club, often invited inSIR GEOFF HURST
n AGE: 77ENGLAND’S World Cup hero sacked
Heath as chief scout around six months
after he took over as Chelsea manager
in 1979. He is not accused of any
wrongdoing but twice declined to be
interviewed formally by the inquiry.
Instead, he said he was ‘not aware of
any inappropriate behaviour’. Yesterday
he commented: ‘I was interviewed by
the powers that be via telephone and
told them exactly what occurred when
I sacked Eddie Heath. I saw no reason to
meet in person to repeat the same facts.’AND WHY WERE YOU
SILENT, SIR GEOFF?
SEPARATE PROBEEXPOSES RACIST
CHELSEA COACH
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sportthe early 1970s after the father had
made a complaint. Gradi, who belatedly
communicated with the review via his
solicitors and who has been suspended
by the FA since 2016, says he passed on
the complaint to a senior figure at the
club and denies he tried to ‘smooth
over’ the matter.
However, Geekie casts substantial
doubt over the 78-year-old’s account,
saying that far from raising the
complaint with the relevant powers at
Chelsea, Gradi went directly to Heath
and, by telling him, exposed the victim
to further ‘bullying and intimidating
behaviour’.
Geekie added that the next time Heath
saw the victim he strode over and asked
him: ‘Do you still love me?’
He states that Gradi, still on full pay as
Crewe’s director of football, is the
‘single example of a clear account of an
adult in a position of responsibility at
the club being informed about an
allegation in relation to Mr Heath...
The complaint about Mr Heath was
not referred to more senior members of
the club and an opportunity to prevent
Mr Heath from going on to abuse
others was lost.’
Heath, Chelsea’s chief scout,
went on to abuse boys aged
10 to 17 for many years,
with 23 complaints from
boys in Chelsea’s youth
system and two other
players from London youth
football. Geekie concluded
that the version of events
given by Gradi, who was
awarded an OBE in 1998 and is
also facing questions over the
Barry Bennell abuse scandal at Crewe,
was unlikely and unconvincing.
The Geekie report also discloses:
n Allegations of non-recent sexual
abuse have been received over three
other employees at Stamford Bridge.
n Sir Geoff Hurst, one of England’s
1966 World Cup winners, refused to be
interviewed formally, despite having
been manager of Chelsea when Heath
was sacked in 1979.
In a separate inquiry commissioned by
Chelsea into racism at the club,
substantial evidence was found that
former academy director Gwyn Williams
routinely subjected black players toracist remarks. Williams is also accused
of demonstrating a ‘dismissive disregard’
to concerns raised with him over John
Butcher, another paedophile who
worked as a scout for the club in
Scotland, and former first-team coach
Graham Rix, who returned to Chelsea
after being jailed in 1999 for having sex
with a 15-year-old girl.
Heath was eventually sacked in 1979,
around six months after Hurst took
over at Stamford Bridge. Heath died in
1983 at the age of 54.
Hurst declined to be interviewed,
saying he did not have any ‘relevant
information’.
He added that he was
‘categorically not aware of any
inappropriate behaviour’ and
‘had not heard any gossip in
relation to that sort of
behaviour’.
Chelsea chairman Bruce
Buck wrote to Hurst later to
arrange a formal interview.
Hurst left a voicemail for
Buck in response, thanking
him for the letter but stating
that he ‘did not wish to get
involved in anything with this matter at
all’ and did not ‘wish to respond in any
way, shape or form’.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing
on Hurst’s behalf.
Hurst said in a statement yesterday:
‘1. I was interviewed by the powers that
be via telephone and told them exactly
what occurred when I sacked Eddie
Heath. I saw no reason to meet in
person to repeat the same facts.
‘2. Eddie Heath’s title was chief scout
but he spent most of his time in the
stands at Stamford Bridge and rarely if
ever on scouting trips. The club,
including the youth section, was notdoing well so I made the decision to
sack him for footballing reasons.
‘3. At no time before I became
manager of Chelsea, during my time as
manager, nor for any of the intervening
years did I hear any untoward
allegations in respect of Mr Heath until
a few years ago when his situation was
made public.
‘Hopefully this clarifies my situation.’
Chelsea put out a statement yesterday,
pointing out that the club is now a ‘very
different place’ but adding that the
review was meant to ‘shine a bright
light on the dark corners of the club’s
history so we can learn lessons to
protect players of the future’.
Of Heath, they added: ‘It is evident
from the review that Heath was a
dangerous and prolific child abuser. His
conduct was beyond reprehensible.’
A number of compensation claims have
been launched, and are ongoing, and
some have already received payments
via Chelsea’s insurers.
Buck has met a number of victims and
is understood to have been reduced to
tears while listening to some of their
harrowing recollections.
Gradi was unavailable for comment
yesterday. Crewe said he did not wish to
speak.
Heath was first accused of sexual abuse
by former player Gary Johnson.
Speaking to BBC Sport yesterday,
Johnson said: ‘You get rid of it and it all
comes back now the report is out. I am
shocked by the number of victims. The
stress, the tears, the anger, the
depression — that won’t go away. It just
eases in time. Many times I’ve been too
depressed to get out of bed, don’t want
to face anybody and couldn’t
understand why — I’m sure many other
victims have felt the same.’by friends and allies and paid for
their services in cash.
When the Barry Bennell abuse
scandal broke, at first Manchester
City struggled to find whether or
not he even worked for them.
There were the photographs, in
Manchester City kit, or at the City
training ground, but little in the
way of a finite paper trail. When he
came, when he went, what he was
paid, who was responsible for him;
it was all very vague.
So any recollection, any inter-
view, may afford investigators
hope. City’s interviews unearthed
the name of a second abuser, JohnBroome, from before Bennell’s
time. There might be a morsel
of information, at first thought
insignificant, that sparks an
entirely fresh lead.
At the very least, doesn’t Hurst
owe football this one? He hasn’t
exactly done badly out of the game
since that day in 1966. Could he
not give just a little bit back?
Would 30 minutes of his time be
too much to ask?
Even if he could shed no light on
the questions, isn’t there even the
slightest sense of duty given the
magnitude of the subject? After
all, those in Fleet Street know thatHurst is only too willing to talk on
a variety of topics in football if
paid his standard fee. Could he
not have found it within himself to
do just this one for nothing?
For, no doubt, what continues to
torture the victims of Heath’s
abuse is not just the horror of the
past, but the complacent present.
The fact Gradi is still employed,
and Hurst unmoved, and the law
is yet to close the loophole that
makes it legal for a sports coach to
have sex with a 16- or 17-year-old
in his or her supervision.
Incredibly, not even football’s
abuse cases have moved the
government to tighten laws and
language around those considered
to have a ‘position of trust’.
At present only people such as
teachers, social workers and youth
justice workers are legally in that
place; sports coaches, faith lead-
ers and heads of cadet troops are
among those legally allowed to
have sex with teenagers they
supervise. The NSPCC is cam-paigning to close the loophole but,
so far, without success.
As for Gradi, it is no longer
feasible to consider him gullible,
foolish or misguidedly loyal. It is
no longer reasonable to suggest
the past was a different country.
These were kids and Gradi had a
duty to protect their innocence.
One of the victims, returning to
Stamford Bridge for the first time,
said he would like to fall to his
knees and smell the freshly cut
grass — no doubt a pleasure that
has carried too many terrors in
adulthood. These were the chil-
dren Gradi betrayed.
‘I’d got no intention of getting
Eddie Heath into trouble,’ he told
investigators. ‘I think I would have
tried to stand up for him a bit.’
So Gradi picked his side and now
football must, too. It is unthinka-
ble he should continue to be sup-
ported by Crewe, or anyone else
inside the game. From here, Gradi
should have to walk on — like the
young men he betrayed — alone.Could Hurst not give just a little
bit back? Would 30 minutes of
his time be too much to ask?
children. He could’ve
he did nothing at all
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