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LONDON. – Chelsea are facing more allegations about a racism scandal involving Gwyn Williams and Graham Rix after the former youth team footballers who claim they were subjected to horrific abuse received public backing from two of the white players who were on the club’s books.

Grant Lunn and Gary Baker, who both played in Chelsea’s youth setup in the early 1980s, said they had decided to come forward to speak about Williams after reading the statement the club’s former youth-team coach released to The Guardian in March to “deny all and any allegations of racial or other abuse”.

Amid new evidence of “whites-against-blacks” training matches and with Lunn remembering racism as “the norm”, this newspaper can also reveal that Chelsea are facing the possibility of more widespread legal action about the culture of “continued racist bullying and abuse” that allegedly existed behind the scenes when Williams, a key figure at Stamford Bridge for 25 years, was prominently involved in the youth system.

Four players have submitted legal claims and a number of others have contacted solicitors, with at least three more cases pending.

All the claims relate to Williams but Graham Rix, a former England international, is also implicated in relation to his coaching period with Chelsea’s youngsters in the 1990s.

As The Guardian reported in January, one allegation is that Rix threw a cup of hot coffee in the face of one young black player, who claims his confidence was shattered by the racial abuse he encountered from his coaches.

Rix and Williams, who use the same lawyer, have repeatedly denied all the allegations. At the weekend Lunn and Baker met four of the players – among them, two of their former team-mates – who claim they were racially abused by Williams, including one who says he was so traumatised by his experiences as a teenager at Chelsea, from 1979-85, he cannot even watch them play on television because of the flashbacks he suffers.

Lunn, a former goalkeeper, spent four years at Chelsea before being released at the age of 18 and moving into non-league football, including spells at Woking and Aldershot.

“As a group of kids, we probably became used to hearing racist terms and insults when we were at the club,” he said. “One week there would be only one or two, another day it may happen 10 times. It was the norm.

“I can remember how it affected some of the lads. One of my team-mates was repeatedly called racist names by Williams and when we were alone together he would confide in me and say how he hated the way he was being treated, the names he was called and the way he was singled out time and again because of his colour.

“Those boys had no support or no way of challenging it. There was nobody else to go to. They had to deal with it and accept it. There was no way anybody else would challenge it on their behalf as their card would have been marked. It was just the way it was. It wasn’t right, and that is clear now. We probably didn’t realise back then how wrong it was.

“It’s why I have come forward to support these players now. It has taken them so long to speak out because of the impact it has had on their lives. Some of these lads were excellent players who I think could have made it. They didn’t get support back then, but it is only right they have it now.”

Baker, who was on Chelsea’s books from 1981-86, said: “When I read the articles in March I was surprised how it all came flooding back and how it made me feel. It was the outright denial from Williams that made me want to come forward. I have no axe to grind with him personally, as I was never targeted in any way by him, but I was annoyed and angered to read his denial.

“I thought: ‘How on earth can he say that?’ as I know he racially abused players, one in particular in my time, regularly. I don’t think that back then, as a kid, I ever thought about it being wrong, and I wasn’t one to speak out anyway. Nobody spoke out. It wasn’t like today where there are at least four or five members of the coaching team. Williams was in charge of the entire youth setup and if you were going to make it in football it was on his say-so.”

The legal papers served to Chelsea allege one player was so traumatised he abandoned his career at the age of 19, despite signing as a professional, and has deliberately avoided going anywhere near Stamford Bridge in more than 30 years since he was at the club.

Some of the black players in the youth team allege they were treated “like a race of f*****g dogs”.

That player’s allegations include that Rix or Williams called him a “darkie”, a “nignog”, a “black bastard”, a “wog”, “midnight”, “jigaboo” and various other insults. The player also alleges he was told by Williams to “f**k off back to Africa” and “sell drugs or rob old grannies”. – The Guardian.