Disclaimer: This blog has been curated to raise awareness about abuse and exploitation in sports.

BBC Africa Eye has uncovered one of football’s darkest scandal; years of grooming, sexual abuse, and exploitation in Gabon. A sport that should symbolize dreams, unity and opportunity has instead be used as a hunting ground for predators hiding in plain sight.

The testimonies are horrifying. They cut deep because they are not just “stories”. They are lived realities of children, teenagers, and young hopefuls who walked into stadiums with nothing but dreams, only to walk out carrying scars no one should ever bear.

One survivor shared:

(crying) They would come to our room. I saw the boys being taken one by one. When they came back I could tell they couldn’t sleep. While we were training for the selection games, those boys were passing blood in the toilets and showers. We could see blood coming out of their bums and they could not play during the next game; they couldn’t run anymore. I didn’t understand what was going on, and nobody would talk about it.

On the fourth night of the camp they came to wake me and my bestfriend. They took us to a room with red lights, full of naked men. One of them was Capello (I have forgotten the names of the others.)

They started touching me and my friend and I just didn’t understand. I wanted to scream. They told me that I should masturbate them and give them blowjobs but I definitely refused.

So they threatened me, saying that if I didn’t do it, I would lose my place in the team. I’d be left on the bench at the end of the tournament. I was so shocked and couldn’t find the words to speak so all I had left were tears. I saw how they started to rape my friend. I looked him in the eye. He looked back at me as if to say: let’s just go with it and get it over with.

I started to pray and pray and then I wanted to get out but the door was locked. They grabbed me and threw me on to the floor; two security men and it looked like they were prepared for this. I tried to fight them off but they forced me to masturbate them and give them blowjobs. I told them I couldn’t do it; cried and screamed and screamed and SCREAMED!

Until they had finished with my friend. They let him go and told him I would never be selected to play ever again. They said if I dared to speak to anyone about what happened, my fam would be killed.

This is not just a football scandal. This is what exploitation looks like when silence becomes the rule and predators are protected by systems that should instead protect the children.

These stories are not foreign to us. We have sat with survivors who carry the same haunted eyes, the same trembling voices, the same unspeakable pain. Whether in sports, schools, homes, or streets, predators thrive where shame and silence are stronger than accountability.

We’ve heard children whisper what they dare not say out loud! We see the weight of secrets crushing innocence. We’ve seen the blood. We’ve seen the brokenness. And we’ve also seen the resilience; the will to rise from the ashes of exploitation.

What happened in Gabon is a mirror to what happens everywhere when the abuse is allowed to hide behind uniforms, titles or “opportunities.” Abuse in sports is no different from abuse in classrooms or families. It is all rooted in Power, Manipulation, and Silencing of victims.

But we refuse to let silence win. We refuse to allow fear to be the cage that holds children hostage. Every voice matters. Every tear is a Testimony. Every scar is a reminder of why we Fight.

This scandal must open the world’s eyes. Abuse in Sports is not “a few bad men”. It is a system of unchecked power that feeds on the dreams of the children. And the world must not only be shocked; IT MUST ACT!!

To every survivor who has been silenced: we hear you. We see You. And we believe YOU!

If you are a survivor of abuse or know someone going through it, Do Not carry that silence alone.

Because Predators thrive in Silence. But Healing Begins with Truth!