The Football Association has appointed Kate Gallafent QC, an independent legal counsel, to assist its review into historical child abuse allegations.
Gallafent will oversee an internal review of claims of sexual abuse made by a growing number of former youth footballers.
In a statement, the FA suggested a fully-fledged inquiry may follow but said the initial review would explore "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."
Gallafent will then provide recommendations "to ensure these situations can never be repeated.