The former captain of Fulham’s women’s team says former owner Al Fayed sexually abused her

Former Fulham women’s team captain Ronnie Gibbons has claimed she was sexually abused twice by late club owner Mohamed Al Fayed, who was also the boss of Harrods.

Gibbons, who captained Fulham in the 2000-01 season, said Fayed, chairman of the west London club between 1997 and 2013, attacked her in an office at the upscale department store.

The Egyptian billionaire, who died last year aged 94, was chairman of Harrods until 2010 and one of Britain’s best-known businessmen.

But last month the BBC aired a documentary featuring statements from several former Harrods employees who said Fayed had sexually assaulted or raped them.

Lawyers representing Gibbons told the PA news agency she had waived her anonymity and expressed in an interview with The Athletic that she felt she could not speak about the abuse at this time out of fear , endangering the future of the women’s team.

The 44-year-old said Fayed tried to “forcibly” kiss her in his department store when she was 20 and then “groped” her on her second visit.

“I was used. I just felt a lot of responsibility on my shoulders because we had just turned pro,” she said.

“Everything in me was screaming at me: ‘Ronnie, you have to go’ but I couldn’t because it would be my fault that all these women would lose their jobs and Fulham Ladies would go down the drain.”

“I couldn’t let anything happen to me, but at the same time I couldn’t just run for the hills, which is what I wanted to do.”

On both occasions she claims she was attacked, Gibbons said she was told she had to go to Fayed’s and was driven from the club’s training ground to Harrods by a club member of staff.

The pretext on both occasions was that Fayed’s children wanted to talk to her about football, but The Athletic’s report said there were no children there.

The Justice For Harrods Survivors group said in a statement: “What former Fulham captain Ronnie Gibbons endured at the hands of Mohamed Al Fayed is another horrific example of the outrageous abuse suffered by the companies he owned. were supported and favored.”

“We honor our customer’s courage.”

The BBC reported that the group represented four of the club’s former players.

In 2000, Fulham’s women’s team, then known as Fulham Ladies, became the first women’s football team in Europe to turn professional.

A statement from Fulham said: “We strongly condemn any form of abuse. We are continuing to determine whether anyone at the club was or would have been influenced in any way by Mohamed Al Fayed, as described in recent reports.”

British police said last week they had registered 40 new allegations against Fayed since the BBC documentary was broadcast.

They were in addition to allegations that police were already aware of before the BBC investigation.

According to the store, more than 200 women are currently in settlement negotiations with Harrods.