Daily US Times: International football’s regulatory body, FIFA, has banned Yves Jean-Bart, the president of the Haitian Football Federation (FHF), from the sport for life after an investigation into sexual harassment and abuse allegations, the organization said in a statement.
Jean-Bart, was provisionally suspended by FIFA in May while the organization’s ethics committee carried out an internal investigation into the allegations. On November 18th, FIFA moved to ban Jean-Bart, also known as “Dadou,” prior to notifying him of their decision on Friday.
The ethics committee of international football’s top body claims that Jean-Bart had “abused his position and sexually harassed and abused various female players, including minors, in violation of the FIFA Code of Ethics.”
Jean-Bart was sanctioned “with a life ban from all football-related activities (administrative, sports or any other) at both national and international level,” FIFA said in a statement.
He also was ordered to pay a fine of 1 million Swiss francs, or nearly $1.1 million US dollars.
Evan Nierman, the spokesman of Jean-Bart, said his client would appeal the decision, saying in a statement, “FIFA’s decision is a travesty of justice and purely political move to avoid further controversy and bad press following a series of high-profile scandals.”
His spokesperson said unlike the judicial system of Haiti, that properly investigated and cleared Dr. Jean-Bart of any wrongdoing, FIFA failed to review actual evidence which is why Dr. Jean-Bart expects to be fully exonerated and reinstated after appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
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