EX-DARTS champ Eric Bristow was roundly condemned yesterday for a series of disgusting attacks on footballers who were raped by coaches when they were children.

Duncan Craig, who founded Survivors Manchester to support men who have been abused, said that Bristow’s slurs could scare off people who had been attacked from coming forward.

The former darts world champion has been heavily criticised after calling footballers “wimps” on Twitter, adding: “Glad I am a dart player proper men.”

He has been sacked as a pundit by Sky Sports and told to stay away from a darts event next week run by Newcastle United.

“Boys who have been sexually abused will often remain silent for many, many years — research shows us they will remain silent for in excess of 20 years — so there’s a lot of pain and hurt that goes along with that silence,” said Craig.

Craig has reported Bristow to Staffordshire Police over the homophobic nature of his tweets.

Bristow subsequently deleted the slurs, which read: “Might be a looney but if some football coach was touching me when i was a kid as i got older i would have went back and sorted that poof out.”