MLS to investigate former Whitecaps coach
Major League Soccer (MLS) has called for an independent investigation into allegations of harassment against former Vancouver Whitecaps women’s coach Hubert Busby Jr.
In a punchy article published in the British daily « The Guardian » on Friday, former player Malloree Enoch described being subjected to unsolicited advances by the 52-year-old from 2010 to 2011.
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The one who is the current coach of the Jamaican women’s team is said to have made attempts to solicit sexual acts with the players he wanted to recruit from the Whitecaps.
Enoch described several uneasy situations she found herself in with Busby’s company. He used the pretext of holding activities with the team’s staff and finally spending time alone with the player, sometimes in his own hotel room. The coach would have tried to kiss her and touch her.
The player did not make a complaint as she felt embarrassed, while also feeling that her career was in Busby’s hands. Towards the end of the 2011 season, Enoch and her teammates finally emailed the Vancouver club officials criticizing the behavior of the coach and his assistants.
The instructor was ultimately sacked following an investigation, but quickly found other jobs afterwards, including with the women of the Seattle Sounders.
In 2009, coach Bob Birarda was also dismissed in a similar fashion by the Whitecaps, after allegations of abuse. The latter was finally arrested last year on six charges of sexual exploitation, two of sexual assault and one for luring a child between 1998 and 2008.
