Investigation reveals systemic abuse of US women’s soccer players

A coach called a player to review a game of play and instead showed her pornography. Another was known at the highest levels of women’s football for berating his players and then questioning them about their sex lives.

A third coach coerced several players into having sex, behavior that a top team found so upsetting that they fired him. But when he was signed by a rival team a few months later, the first club, which had documented his behavior in an internal investigation, said nothing. Instead, he publicly wished him well in his new position.

These details and others are part of a highly anticipated investigative report into abuse in women’s football, which found sexual misconduct, verbal abuse and emotional abuse by coaches in the sport’s top division, the National Women’s Football League (NWSL). English), and has issued warnings that girls also face abuse in youth football.

The report was published on Monday, a year after players outraged by what they saw as a culture of abuse in the sport demanded change and refused to take the field. Leaders of the NWSL and the US Soccer Federation – the country’s governing body of the sport -, as well as owners, executives and coaches at all levels, were found to have failed to act during years of persistent reports of abuse by coaches.

All were more concerned about being sued by coaches or the shaky finances of women’s professional football than the well-being of players, the report found, creating a system where abusive and predatory coaches could move freely from team to team in highest levels of the sport.

“Our investigation uncovered a league in which abuse and misconduct — verbal and emotional abuse and sexual misconduct — became systemic, spanning multiple teams, coaches and victims,” ​​wrote Sally Q. Yates, the principal investigator, in the executive summary of report. “Abuse in the NWSL is rooted in a deeper culture in women’s football, from the youth leagues, that normalizes verbally abusive coaching and blurs the lines between coaches and players.”

Last year, the Football Federation hired Yates, a former deputy attorney general, and the law firm King & Spalding to investigate the sport after reports in The Athletic and The Washington Post detailed allegations against NWSL coaches for sexual abuse. and verbal. After the media reported, and the games were postponed as angry female players publicly protested, NWSL executives resigned or were fired. Within weeks, half of the ten-team league’s coaches were reported to abuse allegations, and some of the best players in the world shared their personal stories of abuse.

Cindy Parlow Cone, president of the Football Federation and a former member of the national team, called the findings “moving and deeply troubling” in a statement. Cone said the Football Federation is “fully committed to doing everything in its power to ensure that all players – at all levels – have a safe and respectful place to learn, grow and compete”, and said the federation will implement immediately. a number of recommendations in the report.

The document provides a long list of measures that must be taken by the U.S. Soccer Federation and, in some cases, the NWSL, including a public list of individuals suspended or barred by the federation, a meaningful assessment of coaches when licensing them, investigations about allegations of abuse, clarifying policies and rules on acceptable behavior and conduct, and hiring female security officers, among other requirements.

The report also questions whether some NWSL owners should be disciplined or forced to sell their teams.

Even with some of the worst abuses publicly disclosed, Yates’ report is impressive in painstakingly detailing how many powerful football officials were made aware of the cases and how little they did to investigate or stop them. Among those whose inaction is detailed are a former president of the Football Federation; the former CEO of the organization and coach of the women’s team; and the leadership of Portland Thorns, one of the most popular and most supported teams in the NWSL.

“Not only have the teams, league and federation repeatedly failed to respond adequately when faced with player reports and evidence of abuse, they have also failed to institute basic measures to prevent and deal with it,” Yates wrote. She added that “abusive coaches switched from team to team, washed away by press releases thanking them for their service”, while those with knowledge of their misconduct remained silent.

The report says the sport does little to coach athletes and coaches about harassment, retaliation and fraternization. He notes that an “overwhelming” number of Football Federation players, coaches and staff members noted that “players are conditioned to accept and respond to abusive behavior in training as youth athletes.”

While the report details complaints made about various trainers, it focuses its narrative on three: Paul Riley, Rory Dames and Christy Holly. The allegations against Riley, who lately coached the North Carolina Courage, and Dames, who coached the Chicago Red Stars, were well documented in media reports. The allegations against Holly, who was abruptly sacked as head coach of Racing Louisville FC last year with little explanation, have not been publicly released before.

The report attempted to interview Riley and Holly last year, but received no responses from them, and neither responded immediately to requests for comment on Monday. Dames also did not immediately return the call.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves