Burn it all down

Concerning reports of sexual abuse in the Haitian federation once again bring up questions about governance.

A Guardian story published yesterday raised concerning allegations of sexual assault against the Haitian Football Federation president Yves Jean-Bart.

You should read the story, by Ed Arons, Romain Molina and Alex Cizmic.

The reporters spoke to a number of girls who allege the federation president coerced them into sexual acts in order for them to stay at the national team training center in Croix-des-Bouquets, just outside the capital.

According to sources in Haiti, several players who have now left the centre were coerced by Jean-Bart into having sex with him, including one who was forced to have an abortion.

“She was put under pressure not to talk,” a former player at the centre said. “Another of our best young players lost her virginity to Dadou when she was 17 in 2018 and also had to abort. These girls who live at the Fifa centre … it’s such a shame because they want to play for the country but if they speak about this situation they will be fired. They are hostages.”

Jean-Bart, president of the Haitian federation since 2000, denies the allegations.

Allegations like these are in their own category from general FIFA shadiness like skimming off the top of TV rights deals, to be sure. I’m just tired of writing about these jokers doing whatever they want and so rarely facing consequences - or, if they do end up in an American jail, facing them after decades of infractions.

It’s time to burn it all down. Anyone still in charge who we can find pictures of paling around with Chuck Blazer or Jack Warner, your time is over unless you can point to convincing evidence you’re doing things the right way.

We need a new generation of soccer leadership. What we’ve been doing so far ain’t working.

I’m not saying there won’t be more men doing bad things if power changes hands, but I do believe fresh faces would get us out of the cycle of “That’s just the way things work around here.” New leaders disgusted by the ways of the past should put safeguards and oversights in place. FIFA should, quite simply, do its job.

The power that comes with a job in soccer governance, plus potential earnings that can be reaped and a relative lack of oversight clearly make it a prime opportunity for the type of person dreaming up get-rich schemes or something far more nefarious. We need a more transparent system, one that works for the players the setup is supposed to protect in the first place.

While the allegations of sexual assault and sexual abuse are by far the most concerning part of The Guardian’s Haiti report, the story goes on to discuss potential mismanagement of funds, an all-too-familiar story in the region.

“The last time I set foot there, I wanted to vomit,” the story quotes a coach as saying. “It is despicable. Ten kids sleep in every room, there are no sheets, no clean toilets. It’s unimaginable. Where did the money go? The federation received millions, and they didn’t even buy sheets.”

Yet, Jean-Bart was elected this year for another presidential term. It’s his sixth, clearly flying in the face of FIFA’s recommendation presidents serve no more than three terms.

Again, please click the story and support the journalism. Trust me when I say it’s difficult to get media companies/editors to allow reporters the resources and the latitude to dig into the sportocrats. It’s tough for independent journalists to get the funding.

It makes me question my role in the system. Were my articles about Haiti at last summer’s Gold Cup too exuberant? Was I too eager to tell their upset story without digging deeper? No, of course not. Those players, representing clubs in the French or American second divisions or playing in Scandinavia or the Haitian domestic league, really did put in an incredible effort and pushed Mexico to extra time in a Gold Cup semifinal.

That was real. The celebrations in Port-au-Prince and throughout the country were real.

The sooner all those running the sport are doing so to create more of those moments, to enrich the lives of those they serve rather than to enrich themselves, the better.

Costa Rica eyeing restart

Costa Rican teams are returning to training today, with an eye toward restarting league matches as soon as this month.

This is not a case like that of neighboring Nicaragua where the government is sticking its head in the sand and saying nothing is happening.

It’s a luxury you have when your country has dealt well with the pandemic and looks to have flattened its curve. Though differences in levels of testing makes it difficult to compare countries and get accurate numbers, Costa Rica, population 5 million, had its new cases peak at 37 on April 9. It announced six yesterday and eight in each of the previous two days.

More Costa Ricans have died in the United States because of COVID-19 (11) than in Costa Rica (6).

And soccer is not being rushed back without careful consideration. That’s evidenced by the through 11-page document approved by the Minister of Sports outlining how teams will have to train for the foreseeable future.

The protocols give a window into what the resumption of training could look like in other parts of the region, especially in MLS and Liga MX.

Some of it is pretty basic. No player with coronavirus symptoms is to come to the facility. The use of hand sanitizer will be required before players leave the field. Players must wash hands after gym sessions. Social distancing will be enforced during any non-training moments, like prayers, time in the locker room or team talks and there can be no drills involving contact.

You have to get to training on your own, not sharing a ride with a teammate, and once there will have a 30-minute period of interview and examination by a medical professional.

Club doctors are responsible for informing the medical committee, made up of fellow club doctors and an epidemiologist, and the Minister of Health about “probable cases, suspected or confirmed.”

There are other interesting wrinkles. Players on the 28-man squads will train in four groups of seven. Those groups can’t change from day to day. They’ll go into the locker room in that group, to the gym in that group and essentially stick with that group in the whole session.

We’ll see how things work with those measures, and hopefully discuss Costa Rica’s return in future newsletters.

More Jon Arnold:

• I co-wrote a piece for BBC Sport about British players quarantining in places they only recently moved to.

  I talked with Lewis Morgan, who moved to Miami surely dreaming of the beach and hanging with Beckham but instead is navigating suburban grocery delivery systems while playing cards with his girlfriend, and Anton Walkes, who is just as into the Last Dance as every other sports fan you know but also is enjoying being a parent during his second stint in Atlanta.

Next week, the newsletter explores graphic design in the Concacaf region! Stay safe over the weekend, and thanks again for texting the link of this newsletter to your best friend and being like, “Hey, you should sign up for this.” It’s a big help.