After allegations of sexualized behavior towards an underage supporter, a long-time employee is leaving the third division soccer team Alemannia Aachen. Now the club management is now being investigated.
Last year, the desperate parents of a 14-year-old girl contacted the Alemannia Aachen club management. Shortly before, her daughter confided in them and reported on her contact with an employee of the club. He is said to have sent intimate messages to the girl, a supporter of the third division club. According to Sportschau information, there was also a video of him masturbating himself. The man is also said to have asked the girl to send him revealing photos.
Accused employee resigns
The club acted immediately: club president Björn Jansen put him in touch with the Child Protection Association. Since then, he says, he has met the parents several times. She and her daughter have now calmed down a bit, he reports.
Jansen and Alemannia’s sports director, Rachid Azzouzi, asked the employee to speak to him immediately after the allegations emerged. Shortly afterwards, the employee resigned on his own initiative. Jansen does not want to comment publicly on details of the separation today. “If we did it, it wouldn’t hurt Alemannia, but rather him.”he claims. But you have “clear edge” showed that the man was no longer acceptable for the club.
However, neither the club nor the girl’s parents filed a complaint against him. Neither of them is legally obliged to do this.
Two investigations by the Public Prosecutor’s Office
The former employee is now being investigated, as Johanna Boomgaarden from the Aachen public prosecutor confirmed to Sportschau. For now, this is the accusation “Procuring possession of youth pornography”. However, the process is still very fresh and further possible allegations such as sexual abuse are currently being examined. The presumption of innocence applies to the former employee. “I didn’t do anything. I just want some peace and quiet”he says on the phone. He does not answer written questions.
The case is now also putting the club’s management in trouble. The Aachen public prosecutor’s office has now also initiated an investigation against Jansen and Azzouzi. In this case, the former employee is listed as a witness.
Anonymous letter accuses the club of coercion
The fact that separate investigations are now being carried out against both the former employee and the president and managing director of the association, even without criminal charges, is due to an anonymous letter that was sent by post to the police in Aachen. The “Circumstances with criminal allegations” was handed over to the Aachen public prosecutor’s office, wrote the Aachen police at the request of the Sportschau.
Alemannia Aachen’s President Björn Jansen
The letter describes the relationship between the former employee and the young fan in detail. The anonymous author also claims that the employee was put under pressure by the club and forced to resign. The letter even accuses the club of coercion. According to the public prosecutor’s office, we will also examine whether this could be the case. Club president Jansen confirms to Sportschau that he knows about the anonymous letter and the allegations it contains against Azzouzi and him. The thing is contrived, he says.
Club president Jansen: “Nothing to blame”
One thing is also certain: an employee who may have committed a criminal offense does not lose their rights as an employee as a result. After consultation with the association’s lawyers, Alemannia is of the opinion that the employee committed the potentially criminal acts outside of his service for the association. Beyond that “professional context”as Jansen puts it. There was therefore no legal basis for dismissal without notice, so there was no reason to put pressure on the employee to resign on their own initiative. There is nothing to blame in this case, says Jansen.
The former mayor of the city of Aachen (2009 to 2015) is now managing director of the Carolus Thermen and heads the Aachen City Sports Association. Another volunteer position. It is important for him to emphasize that he is the specially trained contact person for all clubs with problems with sexual violence. So he immediately knew what to do when dealing with such allegations against an employee.
Charges against former Chairman of the Board of Directors
Jansen has only led the club since last June. He took over the office after severe turbulence around Alemannia. Previously, there had been scandals involving right-wing extremists and violence Hooligans and their proximity to the club’s management at the time made headlines across the country.
This topic will also keep the club busy: The former chairman of the board of directors, Dieter Lübbers, will soon have to answer in a trial – together with the right-wing Alemannia hooligan Kevin P., who has already been sentenced to prison, and a woman. It’s about suspected vigilante justice and conspiracy to commit a crime, as the Aachen district court announced upon request.
