Angers Soccer Coach Resigns After Downplaying Sexual Assault Allegations

"He (Abdel Bouhazama) said: ’It’s not mean, we’ve all touched girls before.’ We were all shocked, without reaction in front of something like that," recounts a player to the newspaper L’Équipe. The Franco-Moroccan coach first denied the remarks before admitting to making such statements. "Yes, yes... But when you take it out of context..., he deplored. I also say that what the player did is not good. But I also say that we have all made mistakes or mistakes, who has not made a mistake like Ilyes? There you go. I don’t condone his gesture, I’m a family man, I have two daughters. Since my player was going to play, it was to put him in good conditions, to defuse it, so to speak."

These remarks sparked a lively controversy. On Twitter, some supporters called for his resignation or dismissal. "A Ligue 1 coach cannot express himself like that. An educator cannot talk like that," an internet user was outraged. Faced with the controversy, Bouhazama "decided to leave the functions he had until then," announced the club of Angers, last in Ligue 1, in a statement on Tuesday. "A controversy arose on Monday after remarks, taken out of context, made during the pre-match talk, were leaked to the local and national press. Faced with the media pressure and to preserve the image of the club and the serenity of the locker room, Abdel Bouhazama announced to President Saïd Chabane that he had decided to leave his position," the same source continued. The club management says it has "taken note of the decision" of the 54-year-old technician, appointed after the suspension of Gérald Baticle, at the end of November.