Fifa is investigating a complaint that Zambian WNT head coach Bruce Mwape, who was already facing accusations of sexual misconduct, "rubbed his hands over the chest" of one of his players.
The Guardian reported that several players saw Mwape groping a teammate after training last Friday, just two days before Zambia's 3-1 victory over Costa Rica. According to an anonymous source, the players decided to wait to report the incident until after their campaign was finished so that they would avoid not being selected in retaliation.
Zambia had already been eliminated from the knockout stages after heavy defeats to Japan and Spain, but their win over Costa Rica earned them their first-ever points at the Women's World Cup.
Through a spokesperson Fifa said:
"Fifa takes any allegation of misconduct extremely seriously and has a clear process in place for anyone in football who wants to report an incident. We can confirm that a complaint has been received in relation to the Zambian women's national team and this is currently being investigated. We cannot provide further details regarding an ongoing investigation for obvious confidentiality reasons... Where guilt is established, Fifa takes the strongest possible sanctions, including removing people from the game for life. Our track record demonstrates this."
Mwape, who was appointed to his current position in 2018, was accused of misconduct at least as far back as September 2022, when the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) said that they had referred an investigation of sexual abuse to Fifa. The Guardian later reported an unnamed player as saying, "If he wants to sleep with someone, you have to say yes. It's normal that the coach sleeps with the players on our team."
Both Mwape and under-17 coach Kaluba Kangwa are understood to have been among those investigated, although Fifa refused to comment on whether investigations were underway or not. Kangwa later left or was dropped from his position, but no official statement on his guilt or innocence was released.
According to the Zambian Observer, the FAZ had briefly allowed Kangwa to continue to coach the under-17 girls even after announcing investigations into the alleged abuse.
FAZ secretary Reuben Kamanga responded defensively to the situation at the World Cup:
"We wish to state the 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]."
"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."
"We however wish to reassure the public that FAZ maintains the highest standards of integrity and transparency and always demands unwavering ethical conduct of the players and officials on and off the field of play. We therefore would not hesitate to take disciplinary measures and act on any misconduct once we are in receipt of an official complaint or when presented with evidence pertaining to an alleged incident."
