Now Hope Fucking Solo is making allegations. This will never end.
'I was in shock!': Olympic soccer star Hope Solo, 36, says ex-Fifa president Sepp Blatter, 81, groped her before major awards show.
Hope Solo, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and goalkeeper for the US women's soccer team says she was groped by the sport's then-most powerful man in 2013.
Solo, 36, said that Sepp Blatter, 81, then the president of international soccer organizers Fifa, 'grabbed her a**' just before they were to give her teammate an award for player of the year.
She revealed that she had been 'nervous' before the event, and was left 'in shock' just seconds before they were to go on stage for what would be one of the biggest moments in her friend's life.
Solo made the revelations in an interview with Portuguese paper Tribuna Expresso.
The player was at the Ballon d'Or Awards to present the female player of the year award to USA teammate Abby Wambach.
Blatter, who resigned from Fifa in 2015 amid a bribery scandal, grabbed her 'right before I went on stage,' she alleged.
Representatives of the former Fifa president were quick to deny the claim telling newspapers: 'This allegation is ridiculous.'
She later elaborated on the claim to The Guardian, saying: 'I was in shock and completely thrown off.
'I had to quickly pull myself together to present my team-mate with the biggest award of her career and celebrate with her in that moment, so I completely shifted my focus to Abby.'
Footage from the night shows Solo seemingly stuttering over her words - possibly through anger or discomfort - and glancing repeatedly at Blatter.
Solo told Expresso that she'd never brought up the issue before because usually 'I speak out directly [with people] when things like that happen.
'In other cases, for instance, I've told my teammates: "Don't ever f**king touch me! Don't do it". It has been in the showers, it's been in the locker room... I usually speak directly with the person.
'In the case of Sepp Blatter, I went on the stage, I was nervous for the presentation... It was the Ballon D'Or I was presenting.
'After that I didn't see him, and that was kind of bad. I didn't get to tell him directly "Don't ever touch me!" That's the way I've always handled things. Directly.'
Solo added that she had seen sexual harassment in sports 'throughout my entire career.'
'And I wish more female athletes would speak out about their own experiences,' she said. 'It's rampant, it's not just in Hollywood, it's probably all over the place.'
Blatter has been accused of making sexist remarks for decades.
In 2004, Blatter proposed that the practical mid-thigh shorts worn by female soccer players should be replaced with hotpants to boost interest in the game.
'Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball, he said.
'They could, for example, have tighter shorts. Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they already have some different rules to men - such as playing with a lighter ball.
'That decision was taken to create a more female aesthetic, so why not do it in fashion?'
Female players from around the globe spoke out against Blatter's remarks, with some noting that female players do not, in fact, play with a lighter ball.
In 2013, he referred to a female candidate for the executive committee of Fifa 'good, and good looking'.
And soon after that, while addressing the female members of the committee, he said: 'Are there ladies in the room? Say something! You are always speaking at home, now you can speak here.'
Blatter became Fifa's president in 1998; in the years following, the organization allegedly engaged in money laundering and took bribes to decide the location of the World Cup.
He was ousted in June 2015 after Fifa's ethics committee found him guilty of accepting an improper two million Swiss franc ($2.1 million) payment from Michel Platini, then chief of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).
Blatter was banned from the sport in December 2016 for eight years, later reduced to six.
He was not indicted in a US-led investigation, unlike 42 other Fifa officials, 24 of whom have pleaded guilty, and three of whom went to trial on Monday.
On October 16, Solo joined in the #MeToo hashtag campaign, designed to highlight the breadth of sexual harassment occurring to women across society.
In an Instagram post, she said: 'For the past few days, I have been thinking about all the uncomfortable situations myself and/or my teammates have experienced throughout the years with trainers, doctors, coaches, executives and even teammates.'
'From inappropriate comments, unwanted advances and grabs of the ass to coaches and GMs and even press officers speaking about players "t*ts" and physical appearance, sexual harassment is rampant in the sports world,' she continued.
'I always felt I'd "handled it" and stood up for myself in those situations, but there were never any consequences for the perpetrators. That needs to change.
'Silence will not change the world!'
Solo has been a professional footballer since 2003. On June 21, 2014, she was charged with two misdemeanor counts of assault against her half-sister and nephew.
The soccer player said she had been defending herself from her six-foot-nine-inch nephew.
She sat out one game and in January 2015 the charges were dropped due to the alleged victims' lack of cooperation with police.
But the charges were reinstated on appeal in October 2016; it's not known when a trial might begin.
