December 15 – In a remarkable interview with the online version of Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper, the disgraced former head of Haiti’s football federation – banned for life for sexual abuse – has launched a passionate defence of his behaviour by accusing FIFA of being corrupt, declaring he is being used as a scapegoat and arguing that he was given only 10 minutes to respond to the sickening accusations against him.
Last month FIFA’s ethics committee found Yves Jean-Bart guilty of “having abused his position and sexually harassed and abused various female players, including minors” from 2014 until this year. He was also fined CHF1 million for his reign of terror.
This week FIFA took control of the Haitian FA via a normalisation committee after it found “strong indications” that Jean-Bart was still exerting his influence despite his ban that followed multiple well-sourced accusations of systematic sexual abuse of female players.
But Jean-Bart, who is appealing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport , told DailyMail.com the allegations against him have been fabricated and that rumours that he fathered children with teenage girls are preposterous.
Jean-Bart, 73, argued that he had been fighting prostate cancer and that his treatment made it physically impossible for him to impregnate anyone.
‘Trust me when I tell you that part of me no longer works,” he said without elaborating. “I even sent (FIFA) a copy of the biopsy results.”
“They say I abused 100 girls and got some of them pregnant. They alleged I’ve got children left and right, with such and such player. Where are all those babies? Not a single witness has come forward with a baby.”
Jean-Bart claimed, somewhat unconvincingly, that the fact Haiti was challenging more successful national teams on the pitch was another factor in FIFA’s decision making.
“Haiti football is disturbing the establishment,” he was quoted as saying. “We have no sponsor, no advertising, no support and no money behind us, yet we beat Costa Rica and we push Mexico and the USA around. How dare we?
“Haiti makes no money for FIFA. Kicking me out and crippling Haitian football was the easy way out, the convenient thing to do. After all, what’s Haitian football? It’s nothing, right.”
Since becoming president of the Haitian federation in 2000, Jean-Bart says he has spent most of his time using football to help with poverty.
“Our federation had the worst reputation when I came on. The sport here was plagued with theft and bribery. There were stories about drug trafficking conducted by players when they travelled to games in other countries.”
Using the FifaGate scandal and the downfall of a string of top officials, including Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, to justify his attack on FIFA, Jean-Bart charged: “This is the kind of organization that pretends to be investigating what’s happening in Haiti.”
During his hearing before FIFA’s Ethics Committee, Jean-Bart claims he was only given 10 minutes to defend himself.
“I knew I was going to be found guilty no matter what,” he said. “I sent FIFA a 2,000-page document in my defence. I do not believe they even read anything from it.”
“Members of the committee said something about zero tolerance . It was a parody of justice. You have to wonder if they’d do the same thing with the president of the French or Italian federations.”
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