The city of shame

All Premier League clubs in London linked to sex abuse probe

LONDON: Allegations of historical sex abuse have been made involving all five London clubs in the English Premier League, the capital city’s Metropolitan Police Service announced.

The five clubs swept up in the scandal that has rocked English football since former Crewe Alexandra youth player Andy Woodward went public in November last year are Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Crystal Palace and West Ham.

Some of the claims go as far back as the 1960s.

The Met’s figures mean the number of Premier League clubs who have been connected with the investigation has risen by one from last month when the global English figure given out by the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) said there weree four.

In all the Met said the allegations involved 77 London-based clubs – three in the second tier Championship and three in League One and League Two – and have received 255 allegations of sex abuse.

“On 8 December 2016, the Metropolitan Police Service confirmed they had launched an investigation into allegations of non-recent sexual abuse at football clubs in London,” read their statet tement.

“AAs of Monday, 30 January, the e investigative team, with of fficers from the Sexual O Offences, Exploitation a and Child Abuse Command, have received 255 separate allegations. “The allegations are connected with individuals at 77 named clubs or teams.

“The breakdown for those clubs is: Five in the Premiership; Three against Championship clubs; Three against clubs in Leagues One and Two; and there have also been 66 other named clubs which would include non-league or non-professional or amateur teams.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Ivan Balhatchet of the Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command, said that each and every one of the allegations will be looked into but the Met would not be supplying a running commentary on the investigations or how many allegations have been made against a particular club.

The scandal blew up last November when Woodward went public over the abuse he had suffered at the hands of a convicted child molester at Crewe Alexandra.

Chelsea have launched an internal investigation over the slew of allegations of historic abuse made by former players. — AFP