FIFA has confirmed it received a complaint over Zambia women’s national team head coach Bruce Mwape, who has been accused of inappropriately touching one of his players at the World Cup.
The Guardian reported that several Zambia players saw Mwape rubbing his hands over the chest of a player at training last Friday.
In a statement to multiple media outlets, FIFA confirmed it will investigate the claims.
“We can confirm that a complaint has been received in relation to the Zambian women’s national team and this is currently being investigated,” FIFA said. “We cannot provide further details regarding an ongoing investigation for obvious confidentiality reasons.”
In response, Zambia’s FA released a defiant statement, claiming no players had raised any issues over Mwape’s behavior and that the coach would be exonerated by video evidence.
“We wish to state the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has not received any such complaint from any of the players or officials in the delegation that travelled to the World Cup. It has therefore come as a surprise for us to hear of such alleged misconduct by the coach as reported in the said online publication (The Guardian),” said FAZ general secretary Reuben Kamanga.
“As a matter of fact, all the training sessions for the Copper Queens were filmed by the FAZ media team and offers no such footage as envisioned by The Guardian. Additionally, a FIFA film crew attached to the Zambian team at the World Cup was present at all training sessions.”
In its first ever World Cup, Zambia was eliminated after the group stage, which saw the team lose to Spain and Japan before notching its first ever World Cup win in its finale against Costa Rica.
Mwape entered the World Cup already carrying allegations of sexual misconduct, which The Guardian reported on last month.
“If he [Mwape] wants to sleep with someone, you have to say yes,” one player who did not want to be named told The Guardian. “It’s normal that the coach sleeps with the players in our team.”
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