British police made their first arrest on Wednesday in connection with a 17-year-old girl's allegations she was gang-raped in a luxury London hotel by up to eight top professional soccer players.

 British media reported that the man, who has been bailed pending further inquiries, was not a football player.

 "A 29-year-old man attended a central London police station by appointment where he was arrested in connection with an allegation of rape and sexual assault made by a 17-year-old woman," a Scotland Yard police spokesman said.

 "He is now bailed to return on a date in late October," he added.

 The teenager's allegation that she was raped by up to eight top soccer players in the five-star Grosvenor House hotel on September 27 threatens English football with one of its worst scandals ever.

 Publicist Max Clifford, who is advising the girl and her family, said on Wednesday she had tested negative for HIV after the alleged incident.

 "She is hugely relieved. Her dad has phoned me in the last half hour to tell me that, and obviously I told him about the arrest," Clifford told Reuters. "They are hugely relieved that something seems to be happening," he added.

 Nicholas Meikle, a 29-year-old party organiser who said he often socialised with famous soccer players, told the News of the World newspaper at the weekend he had been at the hotel on the night in question.

 He said he and three other men had sex with the girl, but that there was no rape.

 "She didn't say 'no.' She didn't push anyone off," the newspaper quoted Meikle as saying.

 The scandal is one of several to have suddenly erupted around top class English soccer and has raised questions about the behaviour of young men who are paid enormous sums and worshipped like pop stars.

 A player for Leeds United soccer club was released on bail on Wednesday after being questioned by police in the northern English city in connection with allegations of sexual assault by a 20-year-old woman.

 A second man questioned by police in the same case was also released on bail.

 The day before, England and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand was barred from a key international tie against Turkey at the weekend for having failed to appear for a mandatory drugs test.

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