Marc Overmars, suspended internationally for sexual harassment

2024-01-10 14:02:36

Marc Overmars will not be able to hold any position or carry out any activity related to professional football for at least one year. The former Dutch footballer was suspended in November by an independent sports court for sexual harassment of Ajax employees, when he served as sports director. Now, FIFA has extended the sanction internationallywhich means he will no longer be the sports director of Antwerp, where he was currently.

Overmars resigned from his position at Ajax in February 2022, after having admitted sending a “series of inappropriate messages” to some teammates and declaring that he was “ashamed” of his behavior. A month later, the former FC Barcelona and Arsenal footballer, among others, was appointed technical director of the Belgian club Antwerp.

Sanction extended internationally

In November, The Dutch Sports Court (ISR) decided to prohibit the former footballer from “exercising any function” in any organization affiliated with the Dutch Football Association for two years, one of them suspended. The Dutch football federation (KNVB) asked FIFA to extend the punishment on an international level.

“The KNVB has the obligation to inform the FIFA Disciplinary Committee of this sanction, which must decide whether to transfer the sanction to the international level, which it has done,” explained the Dutch federation. In this way, Overmars is forced to not be able to continue with his position at the Belgian club.

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Marc Overmars had held the position of sporting director of Ajax since 2012 and played an important role in the Amsterdam club’s recent successes, especially during the European tour in the 2019 Champions League, when they reached the semi-final, and in the Europa League in 2017, playing the final.

During his years as a footballer in the 1990s, Overmars won the Champions League with Ajax in 1995, as well as three Dutch championship titles. In England, he won the Premier League in 1998 with Arsenal, before joining FC Barcelona on loan in 2000. With the Netherlands team, he played in the World Cup in 1994 and in 1998, an edition in which the ‘Oranje’ finished fourth classified.