FIFA is willing to fight to combat harassment against women in football and, as it did a few months ago with Luis Rubiales, on this occasion, it has disqualified the former FC Barcelona player and Dutch international, Marc Overmars, from his duties. He will not be able to hold any position in professional football for one year plus another conditional year due to his “inappropriate behavior” towards several employees when he was technical director at Ajax Amsterdam (2012-2022). Which forces him to leave his position at Antwerp, where he had been since March 2022, the Dutch newspaper NRC reported late this Tuesday.
Overmars arrived at Antwerp, as technical director, a month and a half after he resigned from his position at Ajax. The former Blaugrana admitted his behavior was “unacceptable” and said he felt “ashamed” after it was published that he had forced several club employees to share messages and photographs of a sexual nature. Some facts for which he was denounced last July.
Two months ago he was informed of the sanction with one year plus another conditional sentence by the disciplinary committee of the Institute of Sports Jurisdiction of the Netherlands Federation (KNVB), which transferred the national decision to the FIFA disciplinary committee, since the former player He did not appeal against the national sanction. This Thursday, the said body made the decision that this veto be applied at the international level. The suspension will most likely take effect immediately. However, Overmars can still appeal, his spokeswoman announced.
The controversy continued until Belgium. Belgian Sports Minister Ben Weyts could not help but comment on Overmars joining the Belgian club. He expressed his disagreement, as he did not understand why the club had not waited for the results of the ongoing investigations, which have now led to the international suspension, “if only out of respect for the victims,” he said at the time.
FIFA imposes a harsh sanction, for the second time in a short time, on a man who has shown inappropriate behavior towards a woman. In October, Luis Rubiales, former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), was sanctioned with a three-year suspension for kissing Spanish national team player Jennifer Hermoso on the mouth without her consent after winning the World Cup. played in Australia last summer. The international football body’s disciplinary committee ruled at the time that Rubiales’ behavior “violated the disciplinary code” (Article 13), which covers “offensive behaviour”, “decent manners” and “conduct that brings the sport into disrepute”.