A child abuse scandal has engulfed professional football in England, with former players alleging the existence of paedophile rings that operated unchecked.

Several former professional players have come forward to reveal they were abused as children while playing for their clubs.

Andy Woodward was the first to go public, saying former coach at England’s Crewe Alexandra football club, Barry Bennell, had abused him.

At least five other players have come forward with abuse allegations, including 44-year-old Chris Unsworth, who said he was raped between 50 and 100 times.

Former England midfielder Paul Stewart has revealed that “hundreds” of former players may have been subjected to child sexual abuse. The ex-Tottenham and Liverpool striker told the BBC that from the age of 11 he was abused on a daily basis by a youth team coach.

The Professional Footballers’ Association said on Friday that eight more players were in discussions with them about going public.

Unsworth praised Woodward for opening the floodgates. “I would never have come forward if I hadn’t seen Andy on television,” Unsworth said.

“I know what he has been through because I have been through exactly the same …

“All the lads have been through the same.”

Chris Unsworth speaks on the BBC about the abuse he suffered as a boy.

Unsworth told the BBC he was aged nine at the time the abuse started, initially with ”hands everywhere” before ”it got more serious in the bedroom where there was penetration”.

The Metropolitan Police has announced it “has received information relating to non-recent sexual abuse in football clubs in London”, bringing to four the number of police forces known to be investigating the growing abuse scandal. Hampshire, Cheshire and Northumbria are the others.

Northumbria police are investigating a report in The Guardian that another ex-player has accused convicted paedophile George Ormond of abusing him while he was at Newcastle.

Britain’s Telegraph is also reporting that several clubs, including at least one Premier League team, paid compensation to footballers who had suffered abuse, but only after victims signed confidentiality agreements so strict that they, their families and lawyers are banned from saying publicly that the cases even existed.

There are also suggestions that Crewe Alexandra was warned Bennell had sexually abused one of his junior footballers but allowed the man who turned out to be a serial paedophile to stay at the club for several years.

Former player Andy Woodward.

The Guardian has reported that Bennell, who would end up serving three jail sentences (totalling 15 years) for child abuse, was the subject of a top-level meeting in the late 1980s. But he was kept in his job despite the chairman at the time, Norman Rowlinson, recommending that the club “get him out” because of growing suspicions about his behaviour.

Hamilton Smith, who was a Crewe board member between 1986 and 1990, told The Guardian: “I’m incredibly angry the club continue to refute that they knew anything about suspicions of Bennell’s activities.

“This was discussed at the club’s top level and, as much as I tried to resolve this, regrettably I couldn’t. I dread to think how many victims there are, and my heart goes out to them.”

The man at the centre of the Crewe child abuse scandal, former coach Barry Bennell.

Bennell, now 62, was arrested in Florida in 1992 after taking a junior team on tour, with American authorities later describing him as having “almost an insatiable appetite” for young boys.

Unsworth said he thought members of the club had turned a blind eye to the abuse.

“I think members of the club, they knew what was going on. [They] just swept it under the carpet end,” he said.

Bennell also worked with junior teams affiliated with Manchester City, where former young team player Jason Dunford said the coach attempted to molest him while the team stayed at a holiday camp.

Dunford said he felt there was network of abusers within the sport,  and that the scandal was bigger than the one involving former BBC presenter Jimmy Saville.

“I think Saville looks like a choir boy compared to this fella,” Dunford said.

“I believe there was a conspiracy, there was a paedophile ring and there was people at those football clubs who had a duty to look after the welfare of young boys coming through their system.

“This is their potential future stars and their future stars are being sexually assaulted and sexually abused by a member of their staff.”

https://twitter.com/AndyWoodward2/status/801703376304140288

British police have set up a hotline to deal with the widening scandal and said they received 50 calls within the first two hours, with allegations being made against more than one person.

England captain Wayne Rooney has urged players who have been sexually abused to call the helpline so they do not suffer in silence.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has also praised the men for their courage in coming forward.