PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti’s former soccer federation president whose lifetime ban from the game over sexual abuse allegations was overturned final month introduced Wednesday that he’s reclaiming his place.

Yves Jean-Bart’s defiant announcement might result in a standoff with FIFA, which already has appointed an emergency administration committee to steer the Haitian Soccer Affiliation by November.

Jean-Bart’s digital information convention was held per week after Haiti’s feminine soccer workforce beat Chile 2-1 in a historic match and certified for the FIFA Ladies’s World Cup finals for the primary time, sparking jubilant celebration throughout the nation.

Jean-Bart has denied allegations by the FIFA ethics committee, which issued a lifetime ban after discovering him responsible in 2020 of sexually abusing feminine gamers as younger as 14, protecting mistresses and preying upon women from impoverished neighborhoods.

The Switzerland-based Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport overturned the ban two weeks in the past, ruling there have been inconsistencies and inaccuracies in statements of alleged victims. The court docket additionally stated that data offered by teams corresponding to Human Rights Watch and world gamers union FIFPRO weren’t “sufficiently evidentiary.”

Jean-Bart, who was joined by a number of attorneys throughout the videoconference, additionally stated he would file a lawsuit over alleged defamation in opposition to a contract journalist who first reported the accusations in opposition to him within the British newspaper The Guardian.

“He is occurring the offensive. Let or not it’s identified,” his legal professional Stanley Gaston stated.

Gaston added that Jean-Bart is preventing most cancers and that it’s not clear when he would return to Haiti, noting that each one enterprise could be carried out nearly.

One other legal professional, Claude Ramoni, pressured that Jean-Bart is not suspended, and that it’s his proper to proceed serving as president of Haiti’s soccer federation.

“He was elected as president for 4 years, and his time period has not ended,” Ramoni stated, including that FIFA ought to acknowledge him as such. “They’ve to just accept it.”

FIFA officers didn’t instantly return a message for remark. It’s unclear whether or not FIFA has to let Jean-Bart resume main the Haitian federation.

The emergency panel appointed by FIFA to steer Haiti’s soccer affiliation is led by a veteran soccer official from Cuba, and is ready to characterize Haiti on March 16 in Rwanda when FIFA’s 211 member federations have their annual assembly.

FIFA might deny Jean-Bart a credential to such occasions it organizes, together with the Ladies’s World Cup that begins in July. The month-long match is being co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, which generally require Haitian residents to use for a visa to enter. It additionally wasn’t clear if FIFA deliberate to enchantment the court docket’s determination to uphold Jean-Bart’s enchantment.

Human Rights Watch stated the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport “wrongly annulled” Jean-Bart’s lifetime ban and known as on FIFA to enchantment the ruling.

“In Haiti, FIFA and the game of soccer gave Yves Jean-Bart monumental energy, together with to abuse baby athletes, and canopy up his abuses with threats to kill survivors and members of the family,” Minky Worden, HRW world initiatives director, stated in an announcement.

“In its listening to, (the court docket) failed to offer fundamental witness safety, regardless of realizing that many athletes and federation employees had obtained loss of life threats,” the assertion stated.

Jean-Bart, who had led Haiti’s soccer federation since 2000, additionally introduced Wednesday that he would create new protections to stop sexual abuse, together with establishing an ethics fee.

“I’ve to thank God for the assist and the power to battle all of the allegations over the 20 years from my enemies in Haiti and abroad,” he stated. “They proceed to attempt to beat me by all means.”

___ Related Press reporter Graham Dunbar in Geneva contributed. Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.