In one of the most shameful exposes in sports history, footballers are coming forward one by one to blow the whistle on long-running sex abuse in professional clubs in England. Former players are talking about the existence of paedophile rings where many of them were abused as children.

It began after Andy Woodward went public on television saying a former coach at a football club had abused him when he was young. Soon, others started speaking out — grown men, tough as teak, cried like kids as they remembered the abuse and stripped off the band-aid they had put to wounds sustained years ago. It showed that clubs too, had swept things under the carpet and did not act to stop the abuse.