Disgraced Canadian soccer coach in court on sex charges as women's game faces reckoning
CBC
Former Vancouver Whitecaps and Canadian National Team women's coach Bob Birarda is scheduled to appear in B.C. provincial court Thursday on nine sex-related charges.
Birarda is charged with six counts of sexual exploitation, two counts of sexual assault and one count of child luring, offences alleged to have occurred over a 20-year span between Jan. 1, 1988 and March 25, 2008, at or near North Vancouver, Burnaby and West Vancouver.
The names of the four complainants are protected by a publication ban. CBC has learned at least three of the four are former soccer players.
Birarda is out on bail and has yet to enter a plea. None of the allegations has been proven in court.
The case is gaining additional attention from outside of Canada as women's soccer globally comes under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
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