Chelsea offered their 'profuse' apologies on Saturday night to former player Gary Johnson for the sustained sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of club scout Eddie Heath in the Seventies.
But in a 900-word statement released on the club website as the afternoon's football programme was reaching a conclusion, the club also made a shock admission that multiple other allegations had been made to them in 2014 — and they did little to follow them up.
Chelsea also described as 'inappropriate' the fact that they insisted on what was, in effect, a gagging order being placed on Johnson when they gave him a secret £50,000 pay-off in 2015 for the abuse he suffered.