More than 20 players have approached the Football Association over sexual abuse that allegedly happened while they were in the youth system.
At least seven clubs are implicated in the scandal, with some cases dating back at least 30 years.
Several men say former Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra coach Barry Bennell preyed on them.
Bennell is a convicted paedophile and worked as a football talent scout from the 1970s to the 1990s.
One of his alleged victims is former footballer Andy Woodward, who has told the BBC the abuse began when Bennell approached him and asked him to join a special training team.
"Within about three or four weeks, he asked my parents if I could stay over at his address, and it started there within a few weeks, really. Initially, it was sexual touching, but then it rapidly got worse, and then he raped me."
Now 44 years old, Steve Walters played on the Crewe Alexandra team.
He says he was abused from the age of 12, when he would stay at Bennell's house during the school holidays.
He decided to speak out after hearing Woodward speak about his own experiences of abuse.
Walters has told the BBC hearing Woodward shook him badly.
"I was inconsolable. I thought I was going to have a panic attack, because it was virtually the same scenario as me. And I just, somehow, picked the phone up and phoned the newspaper, because I was that angry and upset. But in another way, like I said to Andy, it was like a hundred tonnes lifted off my shoulders, because I've been carrying this all my life. My career's been ruined. My relationships have been ruined. I just had to get it out there, because I've got children. This can never ever happen to any more children."
Another former player, Chris Unsworth, has told the BBC he has not spoken about his abuse for more than 30 years.
He says Bennell's abuse began when he was nine years old.
(Unsworth:) "He used to pick me up. I was probably one of the closest lads that lived near to his house. He used to pick me up, the abuse started in the car. He used to touch, we used to play games in the car. That's when it all started."
(Reporter:) "And that would be on the way to training?"
(Unsworth:) "On the way to training and on the way back. At first, it started ... the games used to start ... and it was hands everywhere, then down the pants. And then later, it got more serious."
(Reporter:) "And what did you, as a little boy, think was going on?"
(Unsworth:) "I didn't know what was going on, to be fair."
Chief Constable Simon Bailey, from the National Police Chiefs' Council, has told the BBC there are four police forces now investigating the abuse allegations.
"I think we have to accept that we have failed children. There's no doubt in my mind at all about that. But, thankfully, the safeguarding arrangements and the arrangements that are in place to protect children are now so much better. But I still think there is more to be done. And the biggest factor for me is how we as a society, how we as a country, start to develop resilience within young people and give children the confidence to understand, 'This is wrong, I am a victim of abuse,' and have the confidence to come forward and stop that abuse before it escalates."
Football Association chairman Gordon Taylor has told Sky News his organisation will be investigating the allegations thoroughly.
"Nothing at all can condone what has happened, and we have to make sure that is the situation today and for the future and that's not just words. We've got to put all these things in practice, and be monitored from outside as well."
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