The world’s game, a global scandal: the struggle to be heard in football’s sexual abuse crisis

At all levels and in every corner of football, allegations of harassment and worse are being uncovered. But Fifa and the game's authorities are ill-equipped to tackle them

Sometimes, I have regrets. There have been very tough moments when I felt abandoned. I still feel abandoned. I received threats, I was intimidated and my whole life was compromised."

After everything she has been through, Roseline (not her real name) is just thankful to be alive. At the start of October 2020, the young Haitian referee says she was threatened by the man she accused of sexually abusing her. It was two days after she had given evidence against Rosnick Grant, a former international referee who was vice-president of the Haitian Football Federation and president of its referees' commission, to members of Fifa's ad hoc panel" investigating claims of sexual abuse. They assured me it was confidential but there was a leak somehow," Roseline says. I received death threats."