Former Fulham Ladies captain Ronnie Gibbons has alleged she was twice sexually assaulted by the club’s late owner Mohamed Al Fayed.
Gibbons, who skippered Fulham in the 2000-01 season, alleged Al Fayed – chairman of the west London club between 1997 and 2013 – assaulted her in an office at the Harrods department store he owned in Knightsbridge.
Lawyers representing Gibbons have told the PA news agency she has waived her anonymity, using an interview with The Athletic to say she felt she could not speak out about the abuse at the time for fear of jeopardising the future of the women’s team.
She told The Athletic: “I was used. I just felt a huge responsibility on my shoulders because we’d just turned professional.
“Everything internally was screaming at me, ‘Ronnie, you need to leave’, but I couldn’t because I would be to blame for all these women losing their jobs and Fulham Ladies going down the pan.
“I couldn’t allow anything to happen to me, but at the same time, I couldn’t just run for the hills, which is what I wanted to do.”
On both occasions she alleges she was attacked, Gibbons said she was told she had to go to see Al Fayed, and was driven from the club’s training ground to Harrods by a member of club staff. The pretext both times was that Al Fayed’s children wanted to talk to her about football.
The Justice For Harrods Survivors group said in a statement: “What former Fulham captain Ronnie Gibbons was forced to endure at the hands of Mohamed Al Fayed is yet another horrible example of the monstrous abuse aided and abetted by the businesses he owned.
“We salute our client’s bravery and are proud to advocate for Ronnie and others at Fulham who are searching for justice. We will do whatever we can to lift the lid on abuse, no matter where it was perpetrated, or who it was perpetrated by, including any enablers of Al Fayed’s abhorrent behaviour. We will have more to say on Fulham Football Club next week.”
A statement from Fulham said: “We unequivocally condemn all forms of abuse. We remain in the process of establishing whether anyone at the club is or would have been impacted by Mohamed Al Fayed in any manner as described in recent reports.
“Should any person wish to share information or experiences related to this matter, we urge them to contact the police or the club at safeguarding@fulhamfc.com.”
Speaking at his weekly press conference on Friday, Marco Silva, the current manager of Fulham’s men’s team, said the club was “not here to hide”.
He said: “Fifteen days ago your colleague told me about the former Fulham owner and it was about something else and not in the club but now you’re talking about the human captain of the club and it’s now about ourselves.
“All of us can feel it, we’re not here to hide. It’s sad to listen and we have to be completely against this. We’re talking about something from 25 years ago, not last year, two years or three years, but it’s sad anyway. We show empathy and if we can do anything to help as a football club to support those involved, we have to do as a club.”
The Metropolitan Police said last Friday they were investigating 40 new allegations, including rape and sexual assault, against Al Fayed and others from 1979 to 2013.
The force said it had been contacted by numerous people since the BBC’s investigation into Al Fayed was published last month. The allegations were in addition to ones the force already knew about prior to the BBC’s investigation and documentary, the police said.
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