Fifa is considering lodging a rare appeal against a ruling by the court of arbitration for sport (Cas) after its lifetime ban on Yves Jean-Bart, the former president of the Haitian Football Federation (FHF), was overturned.
It is understood Fifa will hold a meeting on Friday to determine its response, with an appeal said to be a real possibility.
On Thursday the international players’ union Fifpro raised concerns about “serious, explicit and extensively documented threats” that it says were made towards those asked to give evidence. That followed a similar intervention by Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Jean-Bart – known as “Dadou” – was banned by Fifa in November 2020 for alleged harassment and sexual abuse against female footballers. He had his suspension overturned at Cas on Tuesday despite claims from HRW that some alleged victims were “threatened into silence” and that one witness was sent a message that told him his coffin “was prepared”.
According to Cas’s statutes, it usually permits appeals only “on a very limited number of grounds” including the “violation of elementary procedural rules (eg violation of the right to a fair hearing)”. Fifa is also believed to be considering other potential legal action.
The Cas panel, when announcing its verdict, “unanimously noted the lack of coherence and inaccuracies in the statements of victims and witnesses presented by Fifa” and criticised HRW and Fifpro for failing to “corroborate or confirm” evidence they had presented to Fifa, describing it as not “sufficiently evidentiary”.
Fifpro on Thursday criticised the decision and said it would “await the full judgment of Cas and Fifa’s decision to appeal before commenting in detail”. It said: “In light of the serious, explicit and extensively documented threats received by those asked to give evidence, and Cas’s failure to offer basic anonymity protection such as voice distortion, how does it anticipate ever being able to procure adequate evidence to discipline powerful alleged perpetrators?”
Fifpro also questioned why the decision had been announced the day before Cas was scheduled to hear an appeal from the FHF’s former head of referees Rosnick Grant, who was banned for life in May 2021 by Fifa after being found guilty of committing acts of sexual harassment and abuse. “Why did Cas decide to publicise the decision the day before another hearing in a related abuse case, where victims and whistleblowers have also received extensive threats, thus risking those witnesses withdrawing from the procedure?”
Cas has not responded to the Guardian’s request for comment. It is understood that Grant’s appeal is scheduled to conclude on Thursday.
