Several Argentinian media on Friday published a police bulletin from La Plata (60 km from Buenos Aires) reporting the testimony of an employee of the hotel restaurantclaiming that members of the Iraqi delegation “touched an intimate part of his body”. According to the same source, the manager of the reception of the hotel, heard by an Argentine policeman, for his part testified that members of the Iraqi team who “Walked in their underwear in the hallways of the hotel, deliberately activated the fire alarm system”.
A security officer of the establishment, always quoted in the report, indicated that members of the delegation “mistreated a performer” local, and have “disabled a hotel elevator, using it overloaded”. Charges denied late Saturday evening by the management of the team, in a video posted on the social networks of the Iraqi football federation.
The federation instructs the hotel administration
“Unfortunately, the accusations are thrown in a haphazard way against the selection, concerning a case of harment”reacted the administrative director of the Iraqi team under 20, Nadim Karim. “I have been accompanying the delegation for two years, we have participated in training […] in Antalya or in Spain »he continued, adding that “despite the freedoms” what these places offer, “We have never faced such accusations”. “If such a shameful act had really been carried out”he pointed out in reference to the accusations of ault, “a video would have circulated around the world. […] We are in 2023, everywhere in the streets and in the hotels, there are surveillance cameras”.
The manager accused “hotel management” to be the source of these accusations “in response to our insistence on changing hotels”the establishment being according to him “deprived of the most basic necessities”having no sports hall and being located far from the training stadiums.