The world governing body of football, FIFA is reported to have opened an investigation into sexual harassment allegations against former Sierra Leone Women’s coach, Abdulai Bah after an article published by London-based Guardian newspaper.
Bah was accused of the sexual harassment of three players which allegations he denied. He was suspended from his role as Sierra Leone’s coach in October 2021 after the allegations were made public by the players. FIFA’s ethics committee stepped into the matter after the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) was accused of inadequacies in its investigation.
Following his suspension, SLFA set up a committee to look into the issues and urged people alleging of sexual assault to come forward and testify with evidence, but they said, nobody showed up. “We cannot therefore take any action against anybody without substantive evidence,” said SLFA spokesman to the newspaper.
Former under-20s captain, Bilkisu Kandeh-Turay is one of the players who accused Bah of sexual harassment. She alleged that the former Coach sent her pictures of his penis and pornographic videos in 2017 when she was 17 after complaining to him about conditions in the national squad.
“We would just go there, train for two or three weeks, go for the competition but no money was given, no bonuses,” said Turay. She pointed out that she started raising concerns of kits, improper food and lack of medical facilities or transport. She said SLFA promised to do something about it, but she said nothing came out of it.
Kandeh-Turay went on to say that, when she forwarded the issues bordering them to Coach Bah, he told her to keep quiet and that she couldn’t change the system. She said, upon insisting on the issue, the Coach changed the topic to “I love you” and sent her a photo of his dick and porn videos. She further said that the Coach regularly asked her for sex and to send him nude photos of her private parts.
Coach Bah was later arrested and spent 11 days in police custody before being released on bail. Fifteen months on, a police spokesperson told the Guardian that Bah remained on bail “pending legal advice from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions as to whether to charge the matter to court or to discontinue with the investigation.
William Fayia Sellu, who was the detective leading the investigation was heard on a radio show saying that, they had found “no evidence” to support the claims of sexual harassment. “Messages and phone calls are not enough,” he said.
The International players Union (FIFPRO) cited a press release issued by SLFA which called for alleged victims to come forward to give evidence. However, FIFPRO stated that the investigations did not include the victims’ security and the Union claimed that SLFA failed to respond to repeated requests they sent them to explain “the scope and independence of the investigation”.
According to FIFPRO’s spokesperson whose name was not mentioned, explained that they were instructed by the players to act for them in the investigation. The Union said to have written a letter to SLFA since November, 2021 asking various questions concerning the scope and independence of the investigation, and the expertise and support available for victims, survivors, and whistle-blowers.
“Such information is indispensable for players to determine if they can trust the investigation and whether they would feel safe providing evidence. The Sierra Leone FA committed several times to answer our questions, yet it ultimately failed to do so, and continued to ignore our questions. Subsequently, we asked FIFA to take over the investigation,” said the Union’s spokesman.
According to the international players’ union, SLFA failed to respond to their repeated questions and has therefore expressed doubts over the “scope and independence” of the investigation. Hence, they are also looking at these allegations against SLFA.
In response to questions from the Guardian, a spokesperson for the SLFA said that it suspended Bah “based on overwhelming allegations against him particularly on social media” and had dropped the case due to “lack of evidence”.
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