From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe: sexual abuse allegations in football around the world

Below is a list of countries where allegations of sexual abuse have been reported in the past few years. Not all of the accusations have been tested through investigations.

Allegations: Afghanistan football federation president Keramuudin Karim was accused of physically and sexually abusing several young female players from the national team.

Status: Banned for life from all football-related activity and fined one million Swiss francs by Fifa in June 2019.

Allegations: In May 2021, a number of high-profile female footballers in Argentina claimed they had been bullied and sexual harassed by a youth-team coach working for the country’s Football Association to Fifa.

Status: The result of a Fifa investigation is pending.

Allegations: The former Matildas captain Lisa De Vanna said in early October 2021 that she had been the victim of sexual assault, harassment and bullying throughout her career with Rhali Dobson, another former W-League player, also stating that she had suffered abuse.

Status: On 22 October Sport Integrity Australia and Football Australia launched “an independent complaints and reports handling, investigation, and disciplinary framework”. They received submissions until the end of January, 2022, but have not yet published the findings.

Allegations: Former technical director Ahmed Mohamed was accused of misconduct towards a senior female player in February 2021. A group of 27 senior players wrote to the BFA’s president demanding he was removed. Mohamed did not respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.

Status: Mohamed left his post for “family reasons” and is now director of football in St Kitts. Fifa has said it will request more details about the appointment, while the Concacaf confederation has