FIFA ban Haiti soccer chief after facing rape allegations

Haiti’s football president Yves Jean-Bart was banned for life by FIFA and fined over a million dollars on Friday.

The 72-year-old Jean-Bart is guilty of having abused his position and sexually harassed and abused various female players, including minors, the independent Ethics Committee of world football’s governing body has ruled.

The ongoing proceedings outlined “acts of systematic sexual abuse against female football players between 2014 and 2020.”

Jean-Bart was given a fine of one million Swiss Francs ($1.1 million) and has been banned from all football-related activities for life.

The investigation followed a report in the British newspaper the Guardian in April that Jean-Bart sexually abused young female footballers at the country’s national training center.
The accusations led to the opening of a criminal investigation in Haiti, as well as the suspension of Jean-Bart by FIFA on May 25.

According to girls and former officials quoted by the Guardian in articles in April and August, Jean-Bart raped many underage players.

FIFA suspended two other Haitian football officials, Nella Joseph, supervisor of girls’ football at the training center, and Wilner Etienne, technical director of the Haitian football federation. (AFP)