Back to the Chelsea Newsfeed

The story of eight key figures at the centre of football's sex abuse report... From disgraced ex-Crewe boss Dario Gradi to Geoff Hurst's unimpressive refusal to be interviewed - and former Saints manager Dave Merrington tackling Bob Higgins

DARIO GRADI

The FA refused on Wednesday night to say exactly why the former Crewe Alexandra manager is banned from football and deemed a ‘risk of harm to children’. But the extraordinary detail on Gradi in Clive Sheldon QC’s report leaves little to the imagination.

He was reserve-team coach at Chelsea in late 1975 when he arrived at the home of a player who had been abused by the club’s youth-team coach, Eddie Heath.

The assault was serious but Gradi told Sheldon he ‘did not consider a person putting their hands down another’s trousers to be an assault’.