Last Updated on August 9, 2020, 8:09 AM AST by Anthony Morris
A former leading official at national football centre of Haiti has accused the president of the football association of Haiti of sexually abusing young female players over many years and requested more of his alleged victims to speak out freely.
Yves Jean-Bart, who is also known as Dadou, was suspended by Fifa for 90 days in May after claims arose that he had coerced some girls at the Centre Technique National in Croix-des-Bouquets for having sex with him.
He has denied the claims against himself, which were first made by the alleged victims in April in a Guardian report, and did not respond to requests for comment on the latest allegations against himself.
Antoine Doret, spent 12 years working as the technical director of the centre before he left in 2014, has claimed that he witnessed the abuse of young female players under the age of 18 by the president and has testified to Fifa already.
He said that Dadou had sexually abused female players for many years.
He said that Dadou takes advantage of the poverty of the girls. The girls and families are impoverished. Sometimes football is their only way to achieve something in their life.
However, none of the alleged victims or witnesses is prepared to have their names published. Still, Doret, who is now a director at top-flight Haitian club, Petit-Goâve, said that he believed that it is essential to go public.
He said that it is time for him to talk and that he is not the only one.
He added that he is working currently with some associations who are fighting for the rights of women in Haiti. By talking publicly, he wants to say to the girls to speak against it.
He said that he understands that they are afraid because no one had defended them. But it is the time to end this era and start something new in the country and that it is the time for justice.
Doret also named an employee at the centre who is alleged to have helped facilitate abuse as Nella Joseph.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
