The referee, believed to be in his 20s, began targeting teenage boys aged from 13 to 16 from 2011, posing in online chat forums as a woman to request sexual photographs and videos.

According to Norwegian media, the suspect would stalk chat rooms on messaging services 'Line' and 'Kitt', using the aliases "Sandra" and "Henriette", to swap thousands of explicit messages with around 100 teenagers between 2014 and 2016. 

The referee attempted to lure the boys into sending lewd material of themselves in exchange for pornographic content, threatening to publish the images online if they refused to send further material, including odd requests not of a sexual nature.

 "The case is a serious one, and it is the biggest case of sexual abuse in Norway to date," state prosecutor Guro Hansson Bull said in a statement, MailOnline reported.

The man's lawyer, Gunhild Laerum, told national broadcaster NRK his client "admits the facts," but has yet to respond to each individual charge.

In 2016, the UK was rocked by a sex abuse scandal surrounding pedophile former coach Barry Bennell, who was found guilty of 36 sex offences against young players and jailed for 30 years.