Former Chelsea Football Player Reveals Shocking Racism and Abuse by Coaches During Teenage Years, Including Disturbing Incident on First Day at the Club

Jimmy Aggrey has spoken out on the Chelsea racism scandal that led to an independent inquiry by a children’s charity and the Football Association involving the police.

The governing body described the situation, which involved young players being racially targeted at the club, as ‘vile abuse’. Four ex-players launched civil action against Chelsea. Aggrey has waived his right to anonymity.

Gwyn Williams, who spent 27 years with the Blues, was found by charity Barnardo’s to have subjected boys to a ‘daily tirade of racial abuse’ was one of the men involved, Graham Rix, who was sent to prison for under-age sex offences, was the other.

The night before it was due to go to trial, Chelsea agreed out-of-court settlements, not accepting liability but apologising for ‘the terrible past experiences of some of our former players’.

Speaking to The Athletic, he explained how he experienced racism on his first day at the club, admitting that he had no joy and that his time was ‘full of stress’.

‘I’d never experienced racism before,’ he said. ‘I knew it existed. I’d seen it on TV and heard my parents speaking about it, but nothing had ever been said directly to me. Then I arrived for my first day at Chelsea and my first encounter with Gwyn Williams. His first words were, ‘Who’s this lanky f***ing c**n?’. That was my welcome to Chelsea. I was 12 years old.

‘Between them, they took away a large part of my childhood. They were a tag team, every bit as bad as one another. And yet, I look at them now and I just feel pity. I refuse to let them keep me in some kind of mental jail.’

There were hopes that Aggrey, who was six feet at the age of 16 and, now 45, has pursued an acting career, starring in Sky One’s Dream Team, could make it at Chelsea.

Explaining the abuse in detail, he described how it would sometimes be physical, with players punished for poor performances.

‘I used to dread getting picked up for training,’ he said of Williams. ‘We would go into the changing room. He’d walk in: “Hey, look at the f***ing bl****s in here. F***ing rubber lips’. Let me tell you something, that was the most demoralising feeling you could ever have.

‘I remember walking to the training ground and I’d be thinking, ‘Oh my god, what am I doing? I can’t wait for this day to be over’

‘It was relentless, and it got physical, too. Gwyn would give you a slap. He’d flick your scrotum. Or if he was really mad and thought you’d had a bad game, he’d give you a crack round the side of the head. It was hard, a man hit. “You little black b*****d… you w**”. I was 13. It took a lot out of me. He addressed me that way every single time he saw me.’

Each player received a six-figure sum following the conclusion of the settlement in 2022.

Williams, 76, was widely seen to have retired but The Athletic report he was issued with an FA ban – barring him from involvement in the game – in 2019.

The FA does not announce punishments for safeguarding matters with even those who exposed Williams not informed of the decision.

The Athletic also reported that Rix, formerly Chelsea’s youth-team coach, was suspended between March 2017 and March 2019 while the FA investigated his part in the scandal.

Rix, 66, was until two weeks ago the manager of non-league club Fareham Town. A safeguarding panel decision in 2019 concluded Rix ‘may pose a risk of harm’ to children in terms of emotional abuse but the FA ruled it didn’t have enough evidence to substantiate the allegations of racism against him.

The police decided there was insufficient evidence to take any action, while both men denied the allegations.