Japanese FA official convicted in France for child pornography consumption | OneFootball

A director of the Japanese Football Association (JFA) was detained in Paris and sentenced to 18 months in prison with a suspended sentence for consuming child pornography on a flight, the French judiciary reported this Tuesday.

“The act was discovered by the plane's crew, who raised the alarm after noticing that the convicted individual was viewing child pornography images on the plane,” explained the Prosecutor's Office of the Bobigny court, near Paris.

Masanaga Kageyama, the technical director of the JFA, was detained during a stopover at Charles de Gaulle airport during his trip from Japan to Chile.

Crew caught the director

According to the newspaper Le Parisien, the flight attendants caught him viewing images on his laptop in the business class of an Air France flight. At the time, he claimed they were photos generated by artificial intelligence.

Kageyama was detained as soon as the plane landed last Thursday and was held in preventive detention over the weekend until appearing in court, where he acknowledged the facts and said he was ashamed, claiming he did not know it was prohibited in France.

Conviction and imposed penalties

The Bobigny court sentenced him on Monday to 18 months in prison with a suspended sentence and a 5,000 euro fine (R$ 31,000 at the current exchange rate) for importing, possessing, recording, or viewing pornographic images of a minor under 15 years old.

Kageyama was also prohibited from engaging in any activity in contact with minors and from entering French territory for a period of ten years. Additionally, France included his name in the judicial record of sexual offense perpetrators.

After the conviction, the director was released but has not yet returned to Japan, according to JFA Secretary-General Kazuyuki Yukawa.

Reaction of the Japanese Federation

The Japanese federation stated in a communiqué that Kageyama's contract will be immediately terminated, considering the case “deeply regrettable,” and offered “sincere apologies for the concern and disruption caused.”

“Football is part of society. A situation like this cannot happen. We must work together to ensure full respect for rules and guidelines,” declared Yukawa during a press conference in Tokyo.

Masanaga Kageyama was responsible for implementing measures to help strengthen Japanese football teams, including the national team, as well as training and developing young players.

Previously, he was a professional player and coach of several J-League clubs. He also coached Japanese under-20 teams.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.