Chelsea may ‘face multimillion-pound suit’
ENGLISH P remier L eag ue g ia nt s Chelsea cou ld face a mult i mil l ionpound lawsuit for damages over sex abuse perpetrated by a former scout decades ago the Mail on Sunday has reported.
The newspaper claims the number of former players to have come forward, alleging abuse by the late Eddie Heath, has doubled to six in just a week with the majority being from his time at Chelsea.
Chelsea’s present owner Roman Abramovich – who bought the club years after the alleged crimes were carried out – sanctioned a £50,000 payout ($63,850) to one of the players Gary Johnson in 2015 provided he didn’t go public about it.
The latter measure earned Chelsea a raft of criticism prompting t hem to issue a statement apolog isi ng profusely to Johnson and explaining the gagg i ng order was “i nappropr iate” but had been included based on lega l adv ice as it is considered normal in such agreements.
Johnson, though, broke his silence once the slew of allegations regarding other clubs emerged last month and is demanding more in the way of compensation from the club – they have also admitted they were alerted to other cases like Johnson’s but took it no further.
However, the Guardian and the BBC revealed later on Sunday former Chelsea assistant manager Dario Gradi has been suspended from his functions as director of football at Crewe Alexandra another club heavily mired in the abuse scandal.
The 75-year-old, who has been at Crewe since 1983, is alleged to have gone round to a Chelsea youth player’s house in 1974 and persuaded him and his parents not to take an abuse allegation against Heath further.
“[Gradi] came to visit my parents and me to smooth it over,” the former youth player told the Independent news website on December 2.
“I remember him saying something like: ‘[ With] Eddie, [football] is his life and he gets a bit close to the boys. I’m sorry if he’s overstepped the mark in his fondness this time’.”
Gradi, who will be interviewed by the FA as part of their review into the scandal and who knew what, has denied any wrongdoing, issuing a statement last Friday.
“Suffice to say, I will do everything within my power to assist all investigatory authorities into what is becoming a wide-ranging and important enquiry into historical sexual abuse,” said the Italy-born Gradi.
Chelsea are just one of 98 clubs from all levels the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) has said have been “impacted” by the scandal with around 350 victims and 83 people identified as potential suspects.
This does not include the two to have been charged.
Former Crewe Alexandra youth coach Barry Bennell, who has served three jail terms for sex abuse, has been charged with eight counts of sex abuse.
Former Celtic coach and kitman Jim McCafferty, who has admitted he attacked four players during his time in Scotland and was coming forward to “cleanse his soul”, gave himself up to Northern Irish police earlier this week has been charged with a nonfootball linked offence in Ulster.
While Chelsea have launched their own internal review – just as English football’s governing body the FA has done with regard to what previous regimes knew about the rumours and claims – more former youth players told the Mail on Sunday Heath was a well known predator.