First police complaint filed against Avram Grant amid sex abuse claims
Former soccer coach for Chelsea and Israel’s national team facing FIFA investigation, wave of allegations following bombshell TV report
Days after an explosive TV report accused famous soccer coach Avram Grant of a pattern of sexual abuse, a police complaint was filed against him.
According to reports Wednesday, a woman filed a complaint against Grant on Wednesday at a police station in Tel Aviv. The complaint reportedly deals with an incident dating back several years, and police said they were investigating the claim.
In an investigative report that aired on Channel 12 on Sunday, Grant — the former soccer coach of the Israel national team and the English club Chelsea — was accused of sexually harassing multiple women.
In close to an hour of testimony, several unidentified women accused Grant of using his prominent position to try and coerce them into sexual relations. The women told similar stories of an influential man who offered to advance the careers of young women in exchange for sex, pressuring them until they gave in.
One woman said that as recently as June 2020, Grant, now 66, invited her to his apartment in Tel Aviv with an offer to help her find work.
“He told me, ‘Make yourself comfortable, take off your clothes.’ I thought he was joking. I was sitting far away from him, on the edge of the couch. He asked me to come closer and tried to hug me, really grabbed me and did not let go,” said the woman, who was 22 at the time.
“I felt uncomfortable, he put his hand on my thigh, and I remember immediately moving his hand. After a few seconds of talking, he grabbed me by the neck, as if choking me, turned my head to him, and tried to kiss me by force,” she said, adding that she immediately said no.
The woman said he refused to let her leave and she was pressured to stay overnight to sleep at Grant’s apartment. “I didn’t have the courage to say no to him.” Grant then tried again and took her hand and placed it on his crotch, at which point she went to the bathroom and started crying, she said.
After eventually going to sleep in a separate bedroom, she awoke the next morning to find he was holding his exposed penis over her head, she said.
Following the report, FIFA announced that it will investigate the allegations.
“Given the nature of the allegations being made, FIFA’s ethics committee will look into the matter,” FIFA said in a statement to The Associated Press. “When it comes to misconduct and abuse in football, we wish to reiterate that FIFA takes any allegations reported to it very seriously.”
Several women said that while working with Grant, he made sexual remarks to them, making it difficult for them to maintain professional relationships with him.
Another woman, identified as a prominent sports journalist in Israel, said that Grant had offered to assist her career when she was starting out. He then began making inappropriate comments to her and sent her harassing messages over several years.
Several of the women recounted similar behavior from Grant, and more than one of them said they were denied access to Grant on a professional level after rebuffing his advances. They also said his behavior was an open secret in the industry.
Grant served as manager of Chelsea from 2007 to 2008, leading the club into the Champions League finals before losing in a shootout to Manchester United. He has also coached Portsmouth and West Ham, and coached the national teams of Israel and Ghana.
In response to the Channel 12 report, Grant did not deny the accusations, saying that any harm he had caused was unintentional.
“In my life, both in a personal and professional capacity, I have always sought, above and beyond any successes or achievements, to prioritize staying a human being and to respect every woman or man, whoever they may be,” he said.
“I am a people person, a man of friendships,” he added. “And over the years I have maintained relationships with women. In all these relationships I have tried very hard to treat them with respect and friendship and I never intended to behave unfairly or in any way harm any woman. Anyone who has felt uncomfortable or hurt by me, I regret it and apologize from the bottom of my heart.”
The Times of Israel Community.