daniel chigunwe
FROM Gabon to Grand Rapids, Afghanistan to Alabama and from Morocco to Mongolia, football has been battling the demons inflicted by the cancer of abuse of women in the game.
Here are some of the high-profile cases, in the last few years:
BLOODBATH IN THE NWSL
In October this year, the National Women’s Soccer League fired Commissioner Lisa Baird, while FIFA launched a probe, in the wake of a report detailing allegations of misconduct against former North Carolina Courage head coach Paul Riley.
World governing body FIFA said it was “deeply concerned” about allegations of abuse in the sport in the United States.
More than a dozen players, which he had been coaching since 2010, filed allegations of allegations of sexual coercion and misconduct by Riley, who was fired by the club, and the league.
“Due to the severity and seriousness of the allegations being made by players, we can confirm that FIFA’s judicial bodies are actively looking into the matter and have opened a preliminary investigation,” FIFA said in a statement.
“As part of this, FIFA will be reaching out to the respective parties, including US Soccer and NWSL, for further information about the various safeguarding concerns and allegations of abuse that have been raised.”
FIFA IN THE EYE OF A STORM
In October this year, FIFA were criticised over their handling of complaints of sexual harassment, and physical assault in girls’ football, after it emerged they had not publicly announced a worldwide ban given to a coach.
Uchralsaikhan Buuveibaatar, was sanctioned by FIFA for “sexual crimes’’ after an investigation found out he had sexually harassed and physically assaulted some members of the Mongolia Under-15 girls’ team, which he was coaching, at the East Asian Football Festival in South Korea in 2019.
“It is not enough to privately ban individuals,’’ FIFPRO, the organisation which represents professional footballers, told The Guardian newspaper. “To keep players safe we need a system whereby persons of concern are immediately suspended and a notice of this is publicly available.’’
Buuveibaatar even posted a picture of himself on Facebook with Gianni Infantino, when the FIFA boss visited Mongolia under a caption which read, “the biggest boss of the sector came and I was able to talk to him for five minutes.’’
This prompted a FIFA spokesperson to issue a response saying “(Infantino) travels and meets people from all around the world on a regular basis. Having pictures taken with other individuals doesn’t mean endorsing those individuals.” Since December 2019, Mongolian television channel, Live TV, have aired a series of explosive documentaries, detailing further allegations against Buuveibaatar, and other former employees of the Mongolia Football Federation, which they claim had become “a hotbed of sexual harassment and abuse.’’
AHMAD FINDS HIMSELF IN A FIX
In June 2019, then CAF boss Ahmad, who was also a FIFA vice-president, was accused, among other transgressions, of dismissing an employee at the continent football governing body, in 2017, after she rejected his romantic advances.
A public relations consultant from Mali, Mariam Diakite, said she was fired by Ahmad for rejecting his advances.
Although she was later reinstated, after other football officials intervened, she learnt, after her incident was included in an Ethics complaint filed with FIFA that year that, at least, four other women had made similar claims.
Diakite claimed she had a confrontation with Ahmad in a hotel suite, during a conference she was hired to organise in Rabat, Morocco, in 2017. He informed her he was terminating her because he had intimated to officials that the pair were in a romantic relationship, and that it would be a conflict of interest, if she carried on working.
“He was refusing to let me work because I refused to marry him,” Diakite said. “When you are a president and you’ve got people whose dream is to work in football and you say, “Come to my room and I give you a job,” is that not abuse of power?”
Ahmad told The New York Times Diakite’s accusations “smears on my character” and were part of a personal vendetta against him orchestrated by a former senior employee of CAF.
A British woman, whose identity was withheld by The Times newspaper, claimed she was cornered by Ahmad, at the same event in Rabat, who insisted she had to accompany him to his room.
The woman, who had been hired to do translation work at the conference, said she quit immediately after the encounter and returned to the United Kingdom, where she filed a complaint with the police in London.
FROM AFGHANISTAN TO GABON, IT HAS ALL BEEN A MESS
Since the start of 2019, coaches and administrators in, at least five countries on four continents, were accused by players and colleagues of sexual misconduct, inappropriate behaviour and even rape.
Authorities in Gabon announced a judicial investigation, into claims that members of the country’s Under-20 women’s team were raped and mistreated by federation staff members, during a tournament in France.
Earlier cases also came to light involving stories of rape in Afghanistan, tales of a pattern of inappropriate behaviour by an elite youth coach in Canada, and reports of sexual assault and harassment, in Colombia and Ecuador. — Sports Reporter/The Guardian/The New York Times
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