Fifa has showed it has appealed towards the courtroom of arbitration for recreation’s (Cas) determination to overturn its lifetime ban on Yves Jean-Bart, the previous president of the Haitian Football Federation (FHF), because of considerations over “very serious procedural and substantive flaws” within the verdict.
Jean-Bart – referred to as “Dadou” – used to be banned through Fifa’s ethics committee in November 2020 for alleged harassment and sexual abuse towards feminine footballers after a chain of investigations through the Guardian. The 75-year-old, who denies the allegations, appealed to Cas and the case used to be heard through an arbitral panel on the finish of March 2022, which “unanimously noted the lack of coherence and inaccuracies in the statements of victims and witnesses presented by Fifa” when it introduced its determination remaining month.
But after additionally rejecting an try through Jean-Bart to reclaim his place as president of the FHF, Fifa has now showed that it has filed an attraction towards the Cas verdict with the Swiss Federal Tribunal and accused the panel of “failure to evaluate key pieces”. of proof”.
“After having carefully analyzed the Cas award, Fifa is concerned that this award contains a number of very serious procedural and substantive flaws, including the Cas panel’s failure to evaluate key pieces of evidence that were offered by Fifa,” learn a remark.
“As a result, Fifa can confirm it has filed an appeal against the Cas award before the Swiss Federal Tribunal, requesting its annulment and referral back to Cas. Fifa remains strongly committed to protecting victims of sexual abuse and misconduct in football and will continue to apply ‘zero tolerance’ to any such acts perpetrated by persons falling under its jurisdiction.”
According to Cas’s statutes, it usually permits appeals only “on a very limited number of grounds” together with the “violation of elementary procedural rules (eg violation of the right to a fair hearing)”. Human Rights Watch wondered the verdict through Cas to rule in want of Jean-Bart after it claimed that some alleged sufferers had been “threatened into silence”, while the international players’ union, Fifpro, raised concerns about “severe, particular and broadly documented threats”. That it says were made towards those asked to give evidence against Jean-Bart.
Fifa appointed a normalization committee to oversee the FHF in December 2020 after Jean-Bart was initially banned by its ethics committee. But he announced his intention to return as president earlier this month at a press conference. “He used to be elected as president for 4 years, and his time period has now not ended,” said his lawyer, Claude Ramoni. Jean-Bart also revealed that he had written to Fifa to demand that he be restored to his role.
However, a letter sent by Fifa’s chief member associations officer, Kenny Jean-Marie, last week to Luis Hernandez – the normalization committee chairman – that has been seen by the Guardian said that Jean-Bart’s claim had been rejected. “We refer to the letters of 24 February 2023 that we received from Mr Yves Jean-Bart and his lawyers,” wrote Jean-Marie.
“In this regard, for all intents and purposes, we would like to point out that the Bureau of the Fifa Council decided on 11 December 2020, based on art. 8 par. 2 of the Fifa statutes, to appoint a normalization committee for the FHF, thus relieving the executive committee of the FHF of its functions.”
A spokesperson for Jean-Bart has been contacted for remark.