Call for victims of abuse within UK football clubs yields 350 alleged claims

A call for the victims of child sexual abuse within British football clubs to come forward has yielded 350 alleged victims.

Originally, a handful of former players claimed they had been abused while in youth teams by coaches of talent scouts.
Since then many more say they too have been attacked.

Famous premiership football clubs including Manchester City and Chelsea are under the spotlight.

As more and more men now come forward to say they were abused as children while paying for youth sides, the clubs are coming under scrutiny about what they knew and when.

A hotline set up has received more than 860 calls including some alleging current abuse.

In the first three days it referred 60 cases to various agencies, that’s more than three times as many referrals as at the same point in the infamous late TV presenter Jimmy Savile scandal.