The president of the Haitian football federation has been accused of sexually abusing young female footballers at the country’s national training centre.
Yves Jean-Bart, known as “Dadou”, the president of the Fédération Haïtienne De Football since 2000, denies accusations that he coerced several players at the Centre Technique National in Croix-des-Bouquets into having sex.
The alleged incidents are understood to have taken place within the last five years.
The claims have been made to the Guardian by numerous sources involved with the centre, including alleged victims and their families.
“There is a lady who works there who puts pressure on the girls to have sex with Dadou,” one alleged victim told the Guardian.
“He will see a nice girl who is attractive and he sends the lady to tell her that she is going to be thrown out of the centre. She starts crying and then the lady says: ‘The only way to resolve this is to speak to Dadou.’ At that moment, the young girl has no choice but to put up with the sexual abuse.”
Jean-Bart said there had “never been any complaint against the federation, nor against the staff engaged in our academy, nor against my person.
This kind of practice of sexual abuse is almost impossible in our camp centre given the physical structures, the principles of education and continuous awareness that we have put in place.”
He said the allegations were “clearly a manoeuvre to destabilise the FHF, the character of the president and his family”.
According to sources in Haiti, several players who have now left the centre were coerced by Jean-Bart into having sex with him, including one who was forced to have an abortion.