Former manager of the Fulham women’s team, Gaute Haugenes, has revealed that extra measures had to be taken to protect female players from the club’s late owner, Mohamed Al Fayed. According to Haugenes, members of staff became aware that Al Fayed “liked young, blonde girls.” As a result, players were not allowed to be alone with him during his 16 years as owner of the club.
The club released a statement expressing their concern regarding the “disturbing” reports about Al Fayed in a recent BBC documentary. In the documentary, several women accused the late billionaire of raping them while they worked at Harrods, the luxury London department store he owned. Lawyers representing Al Fayed’s accusers have stated that it is unlikely that there were not more alleged victims, and that investigations are ongoing into all of the entities he had an involvement in.
Fulham has encouraged anyone who has information or has been affected by the allegations to contact their safeguarding department or the police. Haugenes has stated that he was paid by Harrods, not Fulham, during his time at the club. He also revealed that “when the payslip came from Harrods it was quite strange,” and that the contract said they could place him in the food shop in Dublin if he wanted.
Al Fayed bought Fulham for a reported £30m in 1997, and under his ownership, the men’s team rose from the third tier of English football to the Premier League. In 2000 he backed a move to make the women’s team fully professional, the first side in Europe to do so, but they were downgraded to semi-professional in 2003, and funding was withdrawn three years later.
While Fulham said they were working to establish if anyone at the club had been affected, Haugenes said it was “not the biggest surprise” to hear the allegations against Al Fayed. He added that the players were “protected” by ensuring that certain situations could not occur
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