Former Fulham Ladies captain accuses Mohamed Fayed of sexual assault as four ex-players allege abuse

Ronnie Gibbons, who was then 20, says she was driven by club staff to Harrods where 71-year-old tried to forcefully kiss her and groped her

The former captain of the Fulham women’s team has revealed that she was sexually assaulted by the club’s ex-owner Mohamed Fayed.
Ronnie Gibbons, who was 20 at the time, says that she was twice driven by members of the club’s staff from Fulham’s training ground in New Malden to Harrods in Knightsbridge, which Fayed also owned.
Fayed was then 71 and she says that he tried to forcefully kiss her, made her sit on his knee while he stroked her, and also groped her when she tried to leave.
A BBC documentary last month, entitled Al Fayed: Predator At Harrods, detailed the stories of more than 20 female employees at Harrods who said that he sexually assaulted or raped them. A further 40 women have since made similar accusations during a period stretching from 1979 until 2013.
Fayed owned Fulham between 1997 and 2013.
Gibbons is the first former Fulham footballer to detail being sexually abused by Fayed. However, The Telegraph has learnt that four former Fulham players, including Gibbons, are part of the ‘Justice for Harrods Survivors’ group.
“What former Fulham captain Ronnie Gibbons was forced to endure at the hands of Mohamed Al-Fayed is yet another horrible example of the monstrous abuse aided and abetted by the businesses he owned,” said a statement for the group. 
“We salute our client’s bravery and are proud to advocate for Ronnie and others at Fulham who are searching for justice. We will do whatever we can to lift the lid on abuse, no matter where it was perpetrated, or who it was perpetrated by, including any enablers of Al-Fayed’s abhorrent behaviour.”
Gibbons says that she was twice summoned to Harrods on the pretence of speaking to Fayed’s children about football and, after the first visit, she was given gold chocolates and gifts and an envelope containing around £500 in £50 notes. 
Fayed also offered to buy her an apartment in Knightsbridge, give her mother a job, and says that she was told by the publicist Max Clifford – who worked for Fayed and was later jailed for indecent assaults on young women and girls – that he would turn her into a superstar. 
The first sexual assault happened in the summer of 2000 when Gibbons, a lifelong Fulham fan, was asked to go to Harrods by a member of the football club’s staff.
In an interview with The Athletic, Gibbons said: “I felt kind of excited. I was at Harrods, meeting this guy who has done this amazing thing for Fulham Ladies and he’s chairman of Fulham Football Club, my team.
“I was summoned to his office and I don’t know if the door automatically closed or it was closed behind me, but I went in and it was just him. I was a bit like, ‘This is a bit weird’.
“He said, ‘Oh, I’m very sorry, there was a security breach and my children couldn’t come’. Then 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’.
“He held my arms, pulled me in and tried to kiss me on the mouth. I sort of moved my head so he could only kiss me on the cheek. I was wearing my Fulham tracksuit and just felt sweat instantly on the back of my neck.
“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.”
Gibbons said that she tried to distract him by complementing a photograph of him with the late Queen at a horse-racing meeting on his wall.
Gibbons said she was summoned to visit Fayed a second time that summer and had to bang on the door to get out as he attempted to kiss and groped her again. 
She then refused another envelope of £50 notes and stopped answering her phone to private numbers and avoided him thereafter.
In a statement Fulham said: “We unequivocally condemn all forms of abuse. We remain in the process of establishing whether anyone at the club is, or would have been, impacted by Mohamed Al-Fayed in any manner as described in recent reports.”
In a statement, Harrods said: “We are utterly appalled by the allegations of abuse perpetrated by Mohamed Al-Fayed. These were the actions of an individual who was intent on abusing his power wherever he operated and we condemn them in the strongest terms. 
“We also acknowledge that during this time his victims were failed and for this, we sincerely apologise.”
Speaking at his weekly press conference on Friday, Marco Silva, the manager of Fulham’s men’s team, said the club were “not here to hide”.
He said: “Fifteen days ago your colleague told me about the former Fulham owner and it was about something else and not in the club but now you’re talking about the human captain of the club and it’s now about ourselves.
“All of us can feel it, we’re not here to hide. It’s sad to listen and we have to be completely against this. We’re talking about something from 25 years ago, not last year, two years or three years, but it’s sad anyway. We show empathy and if we can do anything to help as a football club to support those involved, we have to do as a club.”