Scandal on women's football: The coach sexually abused minors

There's a taboo inside the taboo. And to break it, the daily I Equipe points to a new case of sexual abuse that shocks the Clerfontane federal headquarters in France.

This time the scandal is not about men's football, it's women's football. After years of silence, a history of violence occurs against young people who aspire to become football players, some of them minors, on the part of a coach.

According to the reconstruction of the sports newspaper, the woman, who has trained various prominent players of the national team and of leading French clubs, was dismissed by the Federation, but the institution later did not warn future employers of her reasons for leaving.

The facts date back to 2013, when the coach, former high-level football player, was relieved of her duty, after ten years of work that had brought up to the door of the women's national technical stage, where many former officials played.

To destroy ten years of professional activity have served relationships with some girls sheltered in Clairefontane.

Love relationships, even with three minors according to Equipe, which activates a sentimental blackmail mechanism to maintain secrecy and dependence. In 2011, however, when the coach was discovered in bed with one of these girls by another young woman who decided to talk.

Then one was a player who filed complaints about sexual harassment, dating back to 2005, allowing investigators to shed light on the methods of coaching players at home, exploiting emotional fragility caused by forced departure.

The case was filed in 2015, but the coach had already found a new job at a first-class club, where leaders had not been notified by the Federation for the coach scandal. For federal authorities, nothing prevented him from continuing to train.

The ministry claims otherwise, but acknowledges there was no way at the time to intervene in an investigation that was under way. Since 2019, the coach has been responsible for the youth sector at another women's football club.