FIFA is to send an emergency management team to run soccer in Haiti, on Friday saying that it believed the top official it banned for life for sexually abusing players is still running the sport and intimidating witnesses.
Former Haitian Football Federation (FHF) president Yves Jean-Bart was last month expelled from soccer after a FIFA ethics committee investigation confirmed claims by female national team players of systematic sexual abuse since 2014.
The 73-year-old Jean-Bart had been president of the federation for 20 years.
“There are strong indications that [Jean-Bart] is still exerting his influence within the FHF by being involved in the running of its daily affairs,” FIFA said in a statement.
“Multiple sources have asserted that there has been continuous interference from the suspended FHF president and his associates that seeks to prevent and/or discourage victims and witnesses from giving testimony in the ongoing investigations,” FIFA said.
Soccer’s world body said that it gave interim management a two-year mandate and would help “ensure that the ongoing ethics investigations may continue unimpeded.”
New leadership would be appointed by FIFA and the Miami-based Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football.
Jean-Bart has denied the allegations and pledged to appeal his FIFA ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland. The Haitian judicial system has declined to file charges.
The abuse is said to have happened at the country’s national training center at Croix-des-Bouquets, known as “The Ranch,” which FIFA helped fund.
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