The NSPCC has set up a dedicated helpline for sexual abuse victims in football since a number of footballers have revealed on national television that they had been abused by their coaches as children, many by convicted predatory paedophile Barry Bennell, now 62, who worked as a talent spotter and coach for Crewe Alexandra and had links to Manchester City, Leeds United and Stoke City.
Bennell has been jailed three times for sexual crimes. Other football personalities known for similar offences include Jim Torbett, the founder of Celtic Boys Club which has close links to Celtic FC, and convicted sex offender and football coach Keith Ketley, who was sacked by Ipswich Saracens when they found out about boys he had sexually assaulted at a club he’d run in Southend-on-sea, Essex.
There is a view that blind eyes were turned by clubs while the peadophile coaches were making them money, a similar suspicion many had with the BBC and Jimmy Saviile.