AGO Suspends Head of Football Federation Over Allegations of Sexual Abuse

The Attorney General has suspended six members including the head of Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) Keramuddin Karim over the allegation of sexual and physical abuse against women’s soccer team players.

The allegations had been reported by media last week which led FIFA – the world governing body for soccer – to investigate the allegations that male officials from AFF sexually and physically abused the Afghan female football players.

AFF had said that it “vigorously rejects the false accusations made with regard to the AFF’s women’s national team”, adding that has a “zero-tolerance policy towards any such type of behavior”.

However, the president’s advisor Fazel Fazly on Sunday in a Twitter post confirmed that the Attorney General office has reviewed the allegations and that have suspended six members of the AFF including Keramuddin Karim.

“After reviewing the allegations, the Attorney General has suspended six members including the head of Afghanistan Football Federation,” he tweeted.

It comes as earlier,  President Ghani had asked Attorney General Farid Hamidi to ensure a thorough investigation into the sexual abuse allegations in the Afghan Football Federation, and “bring those guilty to book”.

He had said that the government will not “tolerate” abuse of authority to sexually “exploit” people, regardless of their gender.