Barnardo’s, Britain’s largest children’s charity, has been brought in by Chelsea to oversee an independent investigation into the allegations of racism that have left the club facing the possibility of widespread legal action.

Chelsea have commissioned the inquiry after receiving legal claims, initially from three former youth-team footballers from the 1990s, alleging that Gwyn Williams and Graham Rix subjected young black players to explicit racial abuse.

A fourth player, who was in their youth set-up from 1979 to 1985, has made a separate claim about the alleged culture of “continued racist bullying and abuse”, stating that it left him so traumatised he abandoned his football career, despite signing professional forms at Stamford Bridge, and struggles even to watch the current team play on television because of the flashbacks.

Three more players from the 1980s have subsequently taken on solicitors to begin their own litigation and as the Guardian revealed on Tuesday, the complainants have received public backing from two of the white players who were in the club’s youth set-up. Grant Lunn and Gary Baker decided to come forward after reading the statement Williams released to this newspaper in March to “deny all and any allegations of racial or other abuse”. Rix, who became Chelsea’s youth-team coach in the 1990s, has also repeatedly denied all the allegations argentina baby kit.

A letter from Barnardo’s has been sent to the relevant players to inform them that an independent inquiry is under way and which supplies the contact details for the Sporting Chance clinic if they feel they need professional counselling. “Our task is to gather information about cases of non-recent racial abuse against former youth players which have been made known to the club, to look at how the club handled these matters, to compare the environment in which these alleged incidents occurred against the environment which exists at the club today, to make recommendations to the club for the future and to explore how the club may provide support to victims,” the letter states.

The investigation is being led by Julie Dugdale, the head of business at Barnardo’s Training and Consultancy, and Rod Weston-Bartholomew, the charity’s assistant director of children’s services. Dugdale has been involved in a number of safeguarding reviews and Weston-Bartholomew, who previously worked for the Children’s Workforce Development Council, is a key figure in Barnardo’s equality and diversity policy.

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