Late former England and Aston Villa manager Graham Taylor was "warned" about the sexual abuse of young players in the 1980s, it has been alleged.

The Football Association is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into allegations of abuse against hundreds of young boys at clubs around the UK and has now been told that Taylor, who died of a heart attack in January at the age of 72, was aware of the claims at the time.

A document showed that the paedophile Ted Langford was still working for Villa as a scout two years after staff were first warned about him, according to BBC News.

Earlier this year Tony Brien alleged that he was abused by Langford while playing for Villa's youth team at the age of 18 or 19 in the late '80s and, having spoken to youth manager Dave Richardson and first-team boss Taylor about it at the time, was discouraged from speaking out further.

Giving oral evidence to the FA enquiry, Brien said: "They discouraged me from going forward and never offered me a chance to go to the police or anything like that.

"I went into the kitchen at my mum's and my mum said, 'Well?' And I just said, 'They just told me to sweep it underneath the carpet.' And I burst into tears."

Richardson has maintained that he cannot recall having a conversation about abuse with Brien and would not have advised him to keep quiet.