After allegations of abuse in women’s football surfaced in recent weeks in the US, Venezuela and Australia, the sport’s world governing body FIFA fears it could be the “tip of the iceberg”.
Joyce Cook, FIFA’s chief education and social responsibility officer, told CNN Sport there would probably be similar stories out there, and encouraged people to come forward.
Allegations of abuse in women’s football in Australia were brought to light earlier this month when former Matildas superstar Lisa De Vanna broke her silence. Those claims were backed by ex-Matilda Renaye Iserief.
“We are incredibly serious about eradicating abuse from sport, from football,” Cook said.
“We’ve spoken to a lot of other international sports federations about this topic over the last year.
“And what’s clear is that part of ensuring that we have a safe sport means that we also have to provide remedy for those that have been abused, that are being abused and to make sure that any perpetrators are not only not welcome but banned from sport.
“So I think we will see a lot more cases coming forward for sure. And so we should, and we urge people to come forward and to feel safe to do so.”
Former New Zealand international Rebecca Smith, who worked at FIFA between 2013 and 2018, says she was “shocked” at the lack of structure around reporting abuse.
“There wasn’t a set way to manage allegations or information that was coming in on sexual abuse or sexual harassment,” Smith told CNN Sport.
“And then just the communications, both internally, externally to those who had submitted complaints or issues, just the lack of care and communication; it was really disappointing if I’m really honest, because I feel like there’s nothing more important than the health and safety of the main characters in sport.
“So I think it’s a lot more prevalent, a lot more rife than what’s out there in the public. And I think that it needs to be a priority for governing bodies and those that are the ones that are responsible for the health and safety of players.”
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When offered a right of reply to Smith’s comments, FIFA said its reporting system, BKMS, was launched in 2013.
However, FIFA has another problem in the challenge it faces in dealing with the issue of abuse of women’s football – unpaid fines.
“We’ve got levied a $1 million,” Cook said.
“I mean, we haven’t seen those fines being paid. And we have no way to enforce that because, you know, we have to sanction individuals.”
In a statement sent to CNN, FIFA said the recent reports of abuse in football showed it was a “major problem that affects all of us and which cannot be tolerated anymore”.
“FIFA has shown that there is a zero-tolerance policy for cases of sexual abuses in football; anyone found guilty of misconduct and abuse shall be brought to justice, sanctioned and removed from the game,” the statement reads.
“At the same time, the entire global football community needs to do more to prevent such cases from happening and put in place appropriate measures to support the victims.”
FIFA pointed to the work it had done in recent years… “to train and support member associations in implementing the right measures to ensure protection of children and vulnerable groups and to professionalise the role of safeguarding officer across football”.
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