The Football Association believes a full-scale inquiry into the abuse scandal that has rocked English football is likely to be required amid concerns that their own internal review alone will be insufficient to deal with the potential fallout from one of the biggest crises to grip the sport in this country.

The governing body announced on Sunday that it had appointed an independent leading counsel to spearhead their investigation, which will involve speaking to clubs and all former staff whom they believe can provide information amid fears that there may have been a cover-up.

Having been criticised for reacting slowly to the unfolding scandal, which has now led to more than 20 people coming forward with allegations of child sexual abuse, the FA has asked Kate Gallafent QC to oversee their inquiries while they continue to work in conjunction with the police.

Andy Woodward was the first ex-footballer to go public with the abuse he suffered credit: Â© Christopher Thomond

The Metropolitan Police as well as forces in Hampshire, Cheshire and Northumbria are investigating allegations of abuse in football and there have been warnings of the scandal spreading to other sports.

The FA said Gallafent “will make recommendations in order to seek to ensure these situations can never be repeated” but there was an acceptance that the internal review may not be enough.

“At this time, with acknowledgement that a wide-ranging inquiry may be required in time, we are working closely with the police to support their lead investigations and must ensure we do not do anything to interfere with or jeopardise the criminal process,” the FA said in a statement.

A number of former footballers have now come forward

The statement added that the review will “look into what information the FA was aware of at the relevant times around the issues that have been raised in the press, what clubs were aware of, and what action was or should have been taken”.

Hamilton Smith, a former director of Crewe Alexandra, has claimed the FA carried out an investigation into allegations of child abuse at the club by Barry Bennell, the serial paedophile at the centre of the scandal, 15 years ago only to find there was “no case to answer”. Gallafent is expected to want to speak to anyone involved in that alleged investigation.

The FA has been damaged by footage from the two-decade old Dispatches investigation in which Charles Hughes, then the governing body’s director of coaching and education, barely broke stride as he walked past investigative reporter Deborah Davies outside Lancaster Gate in 1996 when asked if the organisation should introduce rules to protect children. Karen Bradley, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said she welcomed the FA’s internal review.

Dario Gradi was Crewe manager at the time of the allegations credit: PA

Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, has revealed that the number of players making allegations of child sexual abuse in football now stands at more than 20.

Taylor alleged that Leeds United and Blackpool had joined Crewe, Manchester City, Stoke City and Newcastle United on the list of clubs connected to the claims.

Crewe released a statement on Saturday in which they said they were appointing an external legal counsel to carry out an independent review. It came 10 days after The Guardian published an interview with the former Crewe player Andy Woodward, whose harrowing account of abuse by Bennell proved the trigger behind the host of revelations that have seen a number of other ex-players relive their own stories of sexual abuse as children.

Anthony Hughes was the latest to come forward on Sunday when he told the Sunday Mirror about his own experiences of being sexually abused by Bennell while he was a young player at Crewe’s centre of excellence.

Manchester City also released a statement announcing that they had launched an investigation. City’s hierarchy are due to hold a board meeting in Abu Dhabi on Monday, when there is expected to be some discussion of the Bennell case. Taylor said he expected the scale of the abuse to widen. “From that time, of those who became apprentices and senior players, over 20 players have come forward,” Taylor told Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek programme.

Asked to name the clubs that had been connected to allegations so far, Taylor added: “We’d start at Crewe, go to Man City, Stoke, Blackpool, Newcastle, Leeds … I’m expecting there will be more. I think we have six or seven clubs.

“I can’t believe it’s just going to be in the North West and North East. We need to be mindful this could be throughout the country in the same way it’s been in other professions where children are there – in the church, in schools.”

The FA said the Child Protection in Sport Unit, which has assisted the governing body in relation to its safeguarding procedures since 2000, will also be carrying out an independent audit into the FA’s current practices to ensure that all are at the highest standard. The audit is due to take place at the beginning of next year.

The news came as more sordid details emerged of the extent to which Bennell played by his own rules and the methods he used to groom young boys as well as the power he wielded at Crewe. The Observer reported that Dario Gradi, the former Crewe manager, used to have a clause in his contract that entitled him to 10 per cent of the transfer fee for any player he brought through the ranks and that he went to the board and offered to cut his share so that Bennell could get a slice of the money, a request approved by the club.

The same newspaper also claimed Bennell kept two Pyrenean Mountain dogs, a snake, a tarantula and a tank filled with piranhas as well as a spider monkey at his house, which has been described as a “kids’ grotto”, and at one point had a baby puma that he acquired from a zoo on the south coast and which he would take for walks on a lead until it went for someone’s arm in an old Woolworths store.