{"id":42744,"date":"2024-05-16T08:25:32","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T08:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=42744"},"modified":"2024-05-16T08:25:35","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T08:25:35","slug":"zambias-coach-mwape-accused-of-touching-female-workers-breast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2024\/05\/16\/zambias-coach-mwape-accused-of-touching-female-workers-breast\/","title":{"rendered":"Zambia\u2019s Coach Mwape accused of touching female worker\u2019s breast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Zambia\u2019s coach, Bruce Mwape, has been accused of intentionally touching a\u00a0Fifa\u00a0contractor on the breast during last year\u2019s Women\u2019s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. A few days before that, similar claims were made against him by a player, the Guardian can reveal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifa is\u00a0investigating allegations made in Augustthat Mwape \u2013 who remains in charge of Zambia and is expected to lead them at this summer\u2019s Olympic Games \u2013 rubbed his hands over the chest of a player after a training session before their\u00a0historic victory over Costa Rica\u00a0at the end of July in Hamilton. It has been revealed that before the tournament Mwape \u2013 who has previously denied the accusations \u2013 was the subject of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by a number of players in the squad that had been referred to world football\u2019s governing body by the Zambian Football Association (FAZ).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bruce<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But allegations have now emerged that Fifa also received an official complaint accusing the 64-year-old of touching the breast of the Fifa contractor \u2013 who is from New Zealand and was employed for the tournament and wishes to remain anonymous \u2013 while the team were staying in an Auckland hotel before their match against Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember him putting his hand on my shoulder to say \u2018Good morning\u2019, but then he went again and wiped his hand straight down the front, obviously touching my boob,\u201d the contractor told the Guardian. \u201cIt happened so quickly. It felt wrong to me but I also questioned whether it had just been a mistake. As in by accident. But after that his relationship with me was very different. So I think he knew what he had done was not appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fifa contractor signed a statement that was sent to Fifa via its safeguarding officer and was also advised to report the incident to New Zealand police. However, she says she did not want to disrupt Zambia\u2019s preparations for the tournament so decided not to. FAZ\u2019s general secretary, Reuben Kamanga, was also informed and urged to investigate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt humiliated and used,\u201d the contractor told Kamanga in a WhatsApp message that has been seen by the Guardian. He wrote back asking if she would be \u201cfree to testify should we require you to do so?\u201d to which she responded: \u201cWhat do I need to sign from FAZ to testify? \u2018Should we require you to do so\u2019? I would have thought you would 100% wish this to be a written statement.\u201d Kamanga agreed to \u201cinform my administration about what you have said on coach Bruce\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mwape, Kamanga and FAZ have not responded to questions about the incident. A Fifa spokesperson referred to its statement from August that said it could \u201cconfirm that a complaint has been received in relation to the Zambian women\u2019s national team and this is currently being investigated\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contractor also said she raised concerns about conditions the squad were forced to endure. \u201cIt was awful,\u201d she said. \u201cThey had no money when they were in New Zealand so they had to just stay in the hotel. You would see all the other teams from other countries going out to have coffees and things but our girls didn\u2019t because they couldn\u2019t afford it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember one day Reuben gave them all $100 and thought he was a God. They all went to Km<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zambia\u2019s participation at the Paris Olympics\u00a0is in doubt\u00a0with Fifa threatening FAZ with suspension after accusations of money-laundering offences against its president, Andrew Kamanga, and \u201cundue influence by third parties\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifa is understood to still be considering whether to impose sanctions after requesting more information from Kamanga and other senior members of the FAZ last week. An IOC spokesman said that it could not comment on an ongoing investigation but said: \u201cWe will be following the outcome of this case closely, for consideration with respect to the Olympic Games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zambia\u2019s coach, Bruce Mwape, has been accused of intentionally touching a\u00a0Fifa\u00a0contractor on the breast during last year\u2019s Women\u2019s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. A few days before that, similar claims were made against him by a player, the Guardian can reveal. Fifa is\u00a0investigating allegations made in Augustthat Mwape \u2013 who remains in charge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":42745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3295],"tags":[5144,11261,11264,5722,4988,3347,8241,11260,7960,8908,11381,4096,12210,5500,5247,11638,7090,7487,1445,10197,5205,3874,8126,5612,5187,11385,1707,1253,13256,421,3805,5713,6120,4293,7333,12151,9804,10885,5165,5320,10392,36,5248,594,6137],"class_list":["post-42744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-sport","tag-accident","tag-accused","tag-allegations","tag-anonymous","tag-auckland","tag-australia","tag-breast","tag-bruce-mwape","tag-case","tag-coach","tag-complaint","tag-costa-rica","tag-female","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-forced","tag-games","tag-general-secretary","tag-god","tag-investigation","tag-july","tag-lead","tag-match","tag-money","tag-new-zealand","tag-olympic","tag-olympics","tag-paris","tag-players","tag-police","tag-president","tag-sanctions","tag-sexual-misconduct","tag-spain","tag-summer","tag-suspension","tag-testify","tag-victory","tag-whatsapp","tag-women","tag-womens-world-cup","tag-world","tag-world-cup","tag-who","tag-zambia"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42746,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42744\/revisions\/42746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}