FORMER national team midfielder Kape Saili broke the silence last week, claiming that during her playing days, her former coach sexually harassed her. This revelation throws a spotlight on the disturbing reality of abuse within women sport.

You might be wondering, ‘who is this Saili?’

Well, she is a former national team player who played as a defensive midfielder for the Copper Queens, formerly known as Shepoloplo in the early years of the new millennium.

Saili was part of the team that played at the 2002 Council of Southern African Football Associations (COSAFA) Cup in Zimbabwe were Zambia finished third after beating Mozambique 1-0.

Since hanging her boots in 2007, the Chilenje Girls product has been around football circles boasting of several stints at junior and senior women national teams as an assistant coach, working with most of the players that form the current Copper Queen squad.

As part of the commemoration of Women’s Day, Saili was hosted by the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) on their ‘’After 9 programme’’ sharing emotional tales of the struggles of women athletes.

Saili described the vulnerability female athletes face, “A lot of things happen,” she said. “People come to you with all sorts of propositions – ‘’if you want to make it you have to do this, you have to do that’’.

Breaking her silence for the first time publicly, Saili revealed, “This is something that I have never shared publicly, but during my playing days I was a victim of sexual harassment by one of the coaches,’’ she revealed.

Saili went into detail about the alleged harassment, claiming the coach used manipulation tactics to pressure her. “He kept saying, ‘you are too good, but you are kind of lazy’]. I would want to put you in the starting line-up, but if you don’t sleep with me, you will be in the terraces,'” she recounted.

Saili described her feelings of disgust and confusion, stating, “I was like ‘why would you want to sleep with me, you are old enough to be my father, why would you want to do that to me?’’’ she wondered.

“I just told him ‘coach, if you want to drop me, drop me, I am not going to give in to your demands’’’.

Thankfully, she did not give in to the demands but revealed that unfortunately some players gave in.

“…It was worse because other players came out and said ‘ba coach did this, ba coach did that’,” she said.

Saili’s revelations show the power imbalance inherent in coach-athlete relationships and the devastating impact such abuse can have.

She connected this experience to the broader issue of societal disrespect towards female athletes, stating, “It is issues like this that cause people to look down on female athletes. It is not every man or woman who has pure intentions when they are given positions of power so it is a bit tough, it is rough [for female athletes],’’ she said.

She encouraged female athletes to report such advances by their coaches.

“I would encourage them to report any signs, just tell off this person who comes to you [who says] ‘if you don’t do this with me you will not go anywhere’, stand your ground,” said Saili.