Former Fulham Ladies captain Ronnie Gibbons has alleged ex-Fulham owner Mohamed Al-Fayed groped her and tried to kiss her on two occasions.
Gibbons has detailed the Egyptian tycoon, who owned Harrods, tried to “forcefully” kiss her at the London department store back in 2000 when she was just 20. Al-Fayed, who died in 2023, bought Fulham back in 1997. He would sell the club in 2013 to Shahid Khan.
Speaking to the Athletic, Gibbons, who waived her anonymity to speak about Al-Fayed, said: “Speaking my truth and finally telling my story will hopefully help me heal and be rid of the shame, embarrassment and pain I have carried for years.”
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Detailing their first meeting, the ex-Fulham Ladies captain said: “He pulled me in close and tried to kiss me on the mouth. He had his arms holding my arms, like at my side, so I couldn’t push him away or anything like that. It was a real kind of control stance, like ‘I’m dominating you’.
“I was just like, ‘What do I do here?’ I just felt like a huge responsibility on my shoulders at that point because we’d just turned professional.” She added: “He even may have stuck his tongue on me or something. I just remember feeling sick, just really physically feeling sick, when I left there.”
Then when recalling their second encounter, where she alleged Al-Fayed groped her, Gibbons said: “This time he groped me. As he was saying goodbye, he was sort of grabbing me, trying to sort of hold on to me and kiss me. He was like, ‘You’re not scared are you? You don’t need to be scared, I’m not going to do anything like that, you’re very precious, you’re a very special girl’.”
Gibbons also detailed a string of other incidents that allegedly happened during her time with Fulham Ladies, which included her having to sit on Al-Fayed’s lap whilst he stroked her knee, and also have to return to the Egyptian’s office for a TV interview which left her “sweating with discomfort.”
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