FIFA has provisionally suspended the head of Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF), Keramuddin Karim, over allegations of physical and sexual abuse of woman members of the federation.
FIFA said the sanction was imposed “in connection with ongoing investigations concerning AFF officials, as reported by local authorities and published by some media.”
The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) this week suspended six members of the AFF including Karim over the allegations against them.
President Ashraf Ghani’s adviser Fazel Fazly said in a twitter post that the move was taken after reviewing of the allegations by the Attorney General’s Office.
The Attorney General’s Office last week said they will run a thorough investigation into the claims.
The issue was raised by a member of the Afghan Football Federation, Khalida Popal, who claimed that woman members of the federation were abused physically and sexually by male members of the AFF at its headquarters and at a training camp in Jordan in 2016.
Karim last week rejected the claims against him and his office which said he and other employees of the authority have sexually and physically abused female members of the federation including women football players in different occasions.
“It is a custom in Afghanistan that everything is good when someone is in (an organization), but everything is broken and disrupted when that person is out,” Karim told TOLOnews on December 9.
“I am really disappointed for their (women footballers) remarks and I am sorry that they made such remarks which are difficult for them and for any other person to prove the allegations. Now the issue is legal, and we must follow it,” Karim added.
The FIFA suspension of Karim applies to all football-related activities at national and international level and expires in 90 days.
