Concacaf has expressed its “extreme surprise and concern” that the St Kitts and Nevis Football Association (SKNFA) has again claimed it consulted the continental governing body over the appointment of a coach accused of sexually abusing and harassing female players in Barbados.
Ahmed Mohamed was the subject of an investigation in Barbados after 27 players from the senior women’s team signed a letter at the start of that month urging the Barbados Football Association to investigate claims made by one of their teammates. It understood that the player alleged the coach raped her at a hotel when she was 18 and that she previously received a series of unwelcome text messages from him. Mohamed has not responded to questions from the Guardian.
Atiba Harris, the president of the SKNFA, has said Mohamed stepped down as technical director of the BFA last year for “family reasons” and was chosen as the new director of football after Harris “reached out personally” to the BFA president, Randy Harris, who is the president of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) and a vice-president of Concacaf and “also other officials within Concacaf and Fifa”.
However, a Concacaf spokesperson told the Guardian: “At no point has anyone from the St Kitts and Nevis FA contacted the Concacaf administration to seek information regarding this individual.” Fifa said it would be contacting the SKNFA to request more details.
Techell McLean, the general secretary of the SNKFA, sent a letter to its member clubs on Thursday reiterating it had “conducted a serious and fulsome due diligence exercise involving consultations with members of the Barbados Football Association, Concacaf and other persons who knew Mr Mohamed personally”.
“The SKNFA was and remains fully satisfied that Mr Mohamed is a good character – the allegations made against him being false,” he added. “And he has the requisite technical ability to perform his functions and take SKNFA football to higher levels.”
But in a letter that has been seen by the Guardian, Philippe Maggio, Concacaf’s general secretary, directly responded to McLean. “With extreme surprise and concern, we have noticed that the St Kitts Football Federation, through various mediums, has affirmed that Concacaf was consulted in relation to the hiring process of Mr Ahmed Mohamed as technical director of the SKNFA,” it reads.
“In this respect, we want to unequivocally reaffirm and stress as we have done in recent days that no one in the Concacaf administration was or has been consulted in relation to the engagement of Mr Mohamed with the SKNFA. Concacaf takes the allegations against Mr Mohamed extremely seriously and have duly noted that Fifa will look into the matter.”
It is understood that clubs in Barbados will discuss on Friday whether to call in an independent investigator, with several having privately expressed concerns over the BFA’s handling of the case and its leadership. Randy Harris, who was re-elected unopposed as president of the CFU last year, said he would look into the case on his return to Barbados.
“I don’t know of these things that I am hearing about pertaining to the BFA,” he told Barbados Today. “So, I would have to deal with it on my return and see if I could find out if any of these issues are true because they are very serious and no report has been made to the BFA about them.”
Asked last week whether he would like to comment about the claim he recommended Mohamed, Randy Harris replied: “No sir.”
Mohamed is understood to be in Anguilla with the St Kitts women’s team, who beat their hosts 3-0 in a friendly on Thursday.
