• Legal papers delivered to Chelsea say player damaged for life • Williams has denied any allegations of racial or other abuse • Club ‘determined to do right thing’ on claims dating from 1979-85

Chelsea are facing new allegations about a culture of “continued racist bullying and abuse” that is said to have left one of the club’s former youth-team players so traumatised he has deliberately avoided going anywhere near Stamford Bridge in more than 30 years and finds it difficult even to watch them on television because of the psychological scars.

Legal papers delivered to Chelsea claim the player still suffers from flashbacks and has been damaged for life because of the racism he allegedly encountered from Gwyn Williams, a prominent figure at Stamford Bridge for 25 years. In a statement submitted as part of his legal claim, the player alleges the abuse started soon after he joined the club’s youth system, at the age of 13, and says it continued for six years until he abandoned his career, despite signing as a professional, because his self-confidence had been shattered and the prospect of seeing Williams made him “feel physically sick”.

Lawyers representing the man, now 51, have lodged a claim against Chelsea alleging the club failed to protect the player, did not do enough to prevent racism during the relevant six-year period and did not make available an individual or separate body for reporting inappropriate and offensive behaviour.

Chelsea have replied to say the club have informed the Football Association and the Premier League, as well as supplying the contact details for the Sporting Chance clinic in case their former player needs counselling. In a statement released to the Guardian, the club said: “We take allegations of this nature extremely seriously. We are absolutely determined to do the right thing, to fully support those affected, assist the authorities and support their investigations.”

As revealed by this newspaper in January, Chelsea are already facing legal claims from three former youth-team players over separate allegations that black players were subjected to explicit racism from Williams and the youth-team coach Graham Rix during the 1990s. Both men, neither of whom has any current involvement with Chelsea, denied the allegations. The latest case relates to alleged incidents from 1979 to 1985, which was before Rix’s appointment.

Williams has declined to comment but his solicitor, Eddie Johns, who also represents Rix, released a statement in January in response to the previous allegations to say his clients wanted to “deny all and any allegations of racial or other abuse”. He said Williams and Rix had cooperated with a police investigation, which had decided not to take action, and were cooperating with the FA. Johns added that the allegations had not been made directly to his clients.

In the latest case the player recalls it being “a dream come true for a young boy” when he joined Chelsea’s youth set-up in 1979, the same year Williams was appointed at Stamford Bridge, and recalls working his way through the different levels to be in the same first-team squad as some of the players, including Kerry Dixon, Nigel Spackman, David Speedie and Pat Nevin, whose boots he polished as an apprentice.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gwyn Williams, left, pictured here next to Gianluca Vialli in 1998. Photograph: Action Images

Behind the scenes, however, he says he was subjected to repeated abuse from Williams calling him a “nig-nog”, “nigger”, “darkie”, “rubber lips”, “shoeshine”, “sambo” and a “lazy black bastard” and, in one incident, telling him to “stop being a little coon snitch” when he tried to report a serious assault from another player.

“To this day I feel I was denied my dream to play professional football,” he says. “I am certain there will have been many more like me – young boys who were targeted and had their self-confidence and self-worth destroyed. By the time I left I couldn’t even bring myself to kick a ball and I’d been a talented kid who had been told I would have gone far in the game.

“I’ve never been back to Stamford Bridge since the day I left. I avoid the area. It’s even hard watching them on TV as, although the stadium has changed, it is still a place which holds many hurtful memories for me, and I still get flashbacks.

“People will say why didn’t you challenge him or why didn’t you tell people but there was nobody to tell in those days and nobody to support you. I never said anything back – I didn’t feel I could. I never challenged him. He was in a position of power and he knew it. I was a just kid and I felt isolated and I didn’t want to alienate myself any further.

“There was also a feeling of shame and guilt as a young man, as if I had been somehow to blame. Football wasn’t like it is now, with lots of people in roles such as player liaison and player welfare. We didn’t even have agents and I didn’t feel I could go to John Neal [the Chelsea manager]. The only people I could possibly have gone to were my parents and I knew my dad would go berserk and march to Stamford Bridge and confront him.

“I was worried that would end any chances of me having a career elsewhere in football. Williams was a senior figure at the club; he knew everyone in football. He was effectively untouchable and he ruled all the players by fear.

“I worried it would make things worse and finish my career. Looking back now, though, he’d killed my career before it even begun. My confidence had been destroyed. I was technically and physically capable but psychologically I’d been destroyed. I became very depressed.”

My confidence had been destroyed. I was technically and physically capable, but psychologically I’d been destroyed

His decision to come forward, he said, was taken after seeing the publicity created by the Guardian’s previous reports. “It gave me the confidence finally to speak out about what he did to me, something I have kept to myself for more than 30 years. There was a racist culture at the club – and in football, I guess. I hope others come forward now, too, and not just from Chelsea but any other clubs where it happened. I am 100% certain it happened to many young black kids in the 1980s. We were easy targets with no support or help.”

His solicitor, Renu Daly, of Hudgell Solicitors, confirmed that a claim had been lodged against the club and said there was “no question that Chelsea should be held vicariously liable”.

“Our client is urging anyone who feels they went through similar experiences to come forward and speak out,” Daly said. “Don’t accept it as something which happened back in the day. It is unacceptable now and the reality is people knew it was unacceptable then.”

She added: “Football clubs are responsible today – and always were in the past – for the actions of their staff, who in youth-team circumstances were looking after children.”