FIFA investigates child abuse case in Gabon.© Twitter.
FIFA has opened an internal investigation after three Gabonese football coaches were accused of sexually abusing hundreds of children, the top international football organization said on Tuesday. “Given the seriousness of the allegations, we can confirm that FIFA’s independent ethics committee has opened an investigation,” a FIFA spokesperson told AFP. One of the suspects is Patrick Assoumou Eyi, a former coach of the West African under-17 national team.
He was arrested on December 20 and charged with raping minors.
Orphee Mickala and Triphel Mabicka, both club coaches, were also charged in the case.
All three face 30 years in prison if convicted.
Eyi, known in the Gabon football world, is nicknamed Capello.
His name was disclosed by the British newspaper The Guardian, which reported on the investigation in December.
Eyi was the coach of Gabon’s under-17 national team until 2017, when he became the technical director of the football league of l’Estuaire, the province of the capital Libreville.
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Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba called the case “very serious and unacceptable”.
Also in December, well-known taekwondo coach Martin Avera was arrested on suspicion of pedophilia involving “numerous victims”.
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