Fulham women’s team were ‘protected’ from Fayed, says former manager

Fulham’s former women’s manager has said female players were “protected” from the club’s late owner after staff “became aware” the billionaire had a penchant for “young, blonde girls”.

Five women have come forward in recent days to say they were raped by Fayed, while several others have said they were sexually assaulted while working at Harrods, the luxury department store formerly owned by Fayed.

Gaute Haugenes, who managed Fulham’s women’s team between 2001 and 2003, told the BBC the allegations did not come as “the biggest surprise”. Referring to members of staff at Fulham, he said: “We knew he liked young, blonde girls. So we made sure that there was no situation. We protected the players.”

Since this revelation, Fulham have been trying to establish whether “anyone at the club has been or is being affected”.

The club is urging anyone with experiences or information regarding alleged misconduct at Fulham to contact the club or the police.

A Fulham spokesman said: “We are deeply shocked and concerned to hear of the disturbing reports following yesterday’s documentary. We have genuine empathy for the women who have shared their experiences.

“We are in the process of establishing whether anyone at the club is or has been affected. If anyone has any information or experiences to share regarding these allegations, we encourage them to contact the club or the police.”

In a BBC documentary, Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods, which aired on Thursday night, more than 20 women who had worked at Harrods came forward with allegations of assault and physical violence by Fayed at properties in London and Paris.

After selling Harrods in 2010, Fayed died last year at the age of 94. He bought Fulham in 1997 and the Ritz in Paris in 1979.

Culture, media and sport secretary Lisa Nandy told the BBC she was pleased Fulham was conducting an investigation. “Too often in these cases we see institutions trying to retreat and protect themselves rather than being open and transparent,” she said.

She said the case underscored the need to protect people in the workplace from abuse by powerful individuals.

At a news conference on Friday, lawyers representing Fayed’s accusers said they suspected there were more victims from other places where Fayed worked. “Wherever he went, there will be victims,” said attorney Maria Mulla.

On Saturday, Bruce Drummond, part of the legal team representing 37 alleged victims, said more women had come forward since the BBC investigation aired. He told BBC Radio 4 there had been 150 “new inquiries” and described it as probably “the worst case of corporate sexual exploitation of young women that … the world has ever seen”.

He said it was not just British women who came forward, but also women from the US, Canada, Malaysia, Dubai and France.

He said it appeared to him to be a “major conflict of interest” for Harrods to encourage victims to approach the company for a settlement.

“We are still investigating and looking at all the new applications that come in and deciding what the best form is to proceed with those,” he said.

In a statement, Harrods said it was “extremely shocked” by the allegations of abuse, stressing that “these were the actions of an individual who intended to abuse his power” and that “the Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010”.

“We also recognize that as a company we have failed our employees who were impacted during this time and for that we sincerely apologize,” the company said.

The company added that since new information “came to light” last year about historical allegations of sexual abuse by Fayed, “our priority has been to settle claims as quickly as possible, to avoid lengthy legal proceedings for the women involved. This process is still available to all current or former Harrods employees.”