An investigation commissioned by the U.S. Soccer Federation and conducted by former U.S. deputy attorney general Sally Yates was released Monday, and it includes revelations that are sure to send shockwaves throughout women’s soccer and raise tough questions about accountability and player safety.
The report’s findings focus heavily on three coaches in the National Women’s Soccer League who have been accused of serious sexual misconduct and abuse: former Racing Louisville coach Christy Holly, former Portland Thorns coach Paul Riley and former Chicago Red Stars coach Rory Dames. It sheds new light on the alleged misconduct by these three coaches, as well as the repeated failures by team owners, U.S. Soccer officials and others to heed warnings and complaints from players about them.
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“Our investigation has revealed a league in which abuse and misconduct — verbal and emotional abuse and sexual misconduct — had become systemic, spanning multiple teams, coaches, and victims,” the summary of the investigation’s findings says. “Abuse in the NWSL is rooted in a deeper culture in women’s soccer, beginning in youth leagues, that normalizes verbally abusive coaching and blurs boundaries between coaches and players.”
Here are the bigger questions around the contents of the report.
Why was this investigation commissioned, and why was Yates chosen to lead it?
U.S. Soccer hired Yates to investigate after a report last year in The Athletic detailed that Riley had been fired by the Portland Thorns in 2015 for misconduct, but the Portland Thorns and the league kept the manner of his exit hidden from the public, allowing Riley to quickly be hired by another NWSL team.
Two former Thorns players interviewed on the record recalled that Riley verbally abused and disparaged them, sent them lewd photos, gave them alcohol and sexually harassed them. On one occasion, he allegedly told the players to kiss each other to get out of training drills, and in another, he greeted a player for a game film review session in his underwear before the player quickly left. He was also accused of sexual relationships with players.
Within days of the article, U.S. Soccer announced it had retained Yates “to lead an independent investigation into allegations of abusive behavior and sexual misconduct in women’s professional soccer.” The federation added that Yates “will be given full autonomy, access and the necessary resources to follow the facts and evidence wherever they may lead.”
Riley’s firing last year was one of five other dismissals of coaches in the league for allegations of abuse.
“Both U.S. Soccer and the league’s owners failed to institute the most basic of workplace protections,” the report says. “For most of the league’s 10-year existence, it has not had an anti-harassment policy, an anti-retaliation policy or a no-fraternization policy, and it did not have ways for players to report inappropriate behavior. Teams also largely lacked a human resource department and did not conduct proper due diligence when hiring coaches.” This resulted in “the systemic abuse of players,” the report says.
The report says sexist and demeaning remarks are normalized as “tough coaching” for female players at the youth level, such that by the time they reached the NWSL, many could “not recognize the conduct as abusive.” Sexual relationships between players and coaches had also been normalized, the report says: Riley, Dames and Holly are all married to former players, which “desensitized the system about power imbalances.”
Even when team owners and executives for the league or U.S. Soccer were tipped off to problems through player surveys and pcomplaints, they “either minimized the reports” by claiming the players wanted to kill the NWSL or the coach had been put in a different position, or they “ignored them entirely.” In some cases, players were told to be grateful to have the opportunity to play professional soccer.
The few times investigations were initiated, they “often narrowly focused on whether a coach’s conduct was ‘unlawful,’ rather than whether it was abusive or even appropriate for a coach of professional women athletes,” the report says. Coaches, meanwhile, were allowed to move around freely between clubs and the federation because teams “repeatedly failed to adequately or accurately disclose the reasons for a coach’s separation.”
“In general, teams, the NWSL, and USSF appear to have prioritized concerns of legal exposure to litigation by coaches — and the risk of drawing negative attention to the team or League — over player safety and well-being.”
