Zambia’s coach, Bruce Mwape, has been accused of rubbing his hands over the chest of one of his players two days before his country’s historic victory in the Women’s World Cup.
According to The Guardian, FIFA received a complaint after the team’s victory Monday over New Zealand.
Before the tournament began, the Guardian revealed Mwape was the subject of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.
The source revealed to the publication that several players saw Mwape rubbing his hands on one of his player’s chest, which shocked them.
One of the players even reportedly said “It’s not appropriate for a coach to be touching a player’s breasts.”
Players also were reportedly scared to report the incident before the tournament for fear that they wouldn’t make the team, so they decided to wait until they were eliminated before they made a report. The team finished third in their group and was eliminated by Spain and Japan.
FIFA officials say they are aware of the allegations and say they take it very seriously.
“Fifa takes any allegation of misconduct extremely seriously and has a clear process in place for anyone in football who wants to report an incident. We can confirm that a complaint has been received in relation to the Zambian women’s national team and this is currently being investigated. We cannot provide further details regarding an ongoing investigation for obvious confidentiality reasons.”
The Football Association of Zambia claims they haven’t received any such complaints about this latest allegation against Mwape.
They did say, however, that if the allegations are true, they will take action. Mwape has been the women’s national coach for Zambia since 2018 and in that same year, Zambia qualified for their first Women’s World Cup.
