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Former football player Ronnie Gibbonsformer English club captain Fulham In the early 2000s, he condemned sexual violence which he received from Mohamed Al-Fayed, who was team owner and Harrods department store.
Al Fayed, died 2023was More than forty women are accused sexual assaults between 1979 and 2013, in the BBC documentary “Al Fayed: the predator at Harrods“.
Fulham, the team Al-Fayed owned between 1997 and 2013, were not implicated in the businessman’s abuses until Gibbons told the media.Athletic“, revealed twice when she was attacked.
Gibbons, who at that time I was 20 years old and captained Fulham, she was twice summoned to Al-Fayed’s office in central London, where she “kissed, grabbed and caressed” employer against his will.
“I was blonde, thin, and the media called me the David Beckham of women’s football. “Everyone knew Al Fayed liked women and blondes,” said Gibbons, who remembers the first time Al Fayed called him. They said that the businessman’s children would be in the room..
They took me to his office and I don’t know if the door closed automatically or if someone closed it, but I got there and it was just him. His children were not there. There was no one there and it already seemed very strange to me. Then he picked me up and tried to kiss me. He grabbed mine with his hands, and I couldn’t push him away. It was a control situation where I told myself, “I am dominating you.”
“He kept grabbing me, trying to pull me in and kiss me on the lips. I moved so that he could only kiss me on the cheek. I was wearing a Fulham shirt and immediately noticed the sweat on my back. It was very inconvenient. I was frozen“,” he said.
Gibbons said the businessman tried to make her sit on his lap and continued to harass her with personal questions about her family, her boyfriend and her home, as well as offer to buy things.
Al-Fayed, who tried to kiss her again several times, gave her envelope with money and sent gifts to his home.
“I’m lucky because I was able to leave without making him angry or experiencing anything worse.. “I felt very, very uncomfortable, very scared and like I had a lot of responsibility on my shoulders,” she explained.
The former player recalls that Al-Fayed continued to call her in the following months and that was called back to his officewhere she was again attacked, with kisses, sexual questions, touching, and when she tried to leave, the businessman grabbed her forcefully.
Gibbons had to return a third time to do an interview with the club, which he remembered as “shit” because of what the businessman said about how he helped women’s football.
He was there talking about how great this guy was because he created a professional football team. And it was all nonsense.
After this Gibbons He never returned to his office.but she had to avoid the businessman during the Christmas holidays, where he stalked her and she tried not to be alone.
Former football player lost captaincy in 2001 and he felt compelled to tell the story when he saw that Gaute Haugenes, the manager hired that year, had said on the BBC that Fulham They tried to protect the players because they knew what Al Fayed was.
“This doesn’t make sense. Gaute was not the coach in the first season when I had meetings with Al-Fayed, but he definitely I should have known that Al Fayed wanted something from me.– he explained.
Following the news announcement, Fulham released a statement: refuting the facts and demonstrating your support; Additionally, he stated that he was in the process of determining the role the club played in these events.
EFE
Source: Aristegui Noticias
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
