BRITISH police investigating allegations of widespread child sex abuse at soccer clubs dating back to the 1970s said Wednesday they had now identified 184 potential suspects and 526 victims, adding that the number of clubs impacted had risen by 100 to 248.

    Police forces across the country launched inquiries after former player Andy Woodward revealed in November he had been abused as a boy by a youth team coach, prompting other ex-professionals to come forward with allegations.

    The soccer abuse revelations are the latest in a series of pedophile scandals to have hit Britain in recent years.

    Victims say the scale of wrongdoing is likely to be worse than in the case of TV star Jimmy Savile, a cigar-chomping BBC television host who abused hundreds of youngsters over six decades until his death in 2011.

    So far 1,016 referrals of sports abuse have been passed to specialist detectives from a child protection charity and police.

    The number of possible victims is now 526, up from about 350 last month, with 126 suspects.

    (SD-Agencies)