The head coach of Zambia Women's national team, Bruce Mwape, was reportedly caught rubbing the chest of one of his players during training at the 2023 Women's World Cup.
The world football governing body, FIFA, is
already looking into a formal complaint of the incident which has been tagged
as a sexual assault.
A FIFA spokesperson was quoted as saying,
"A complaint has been received".
"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."
It was gathered that Bruce Mwape was filmed
rubbing the unnamed female player's chest during a training session in New
Zealand on July 29, 2023.
However, the Football Association of Zambia
(FAZ) asserted that "it has not received any such complaint" and that
it is a "surprise".
A statement from the football association
added, "All the training sessions for the Copper Queens [Zambia] were
filmed by the FAZ media team and offer no such footage.
"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 about an alleged
incident."
The alleged incident is said to have taken
place two days before Zambia's last group game against Costa Rica, in which
they recorded their first Women's World Cup victory with a 3-1 scoreline.
Despite the victory, Zambia finished third in
Group C and was knocked out of the tournament. They have all returned to
Zambia.
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