Women’s Soccer League Hires Law Firm to Investigate Misconduct Allegations - The Wall Street Journal

The investigations will also involve a reopening of the 2015 inquiry into coach Paul Riley, who was accused, in a report published on Thursday by the Athletic, of sexually coercing players at the Portland Thorns. Riley was investigated before leaving for the team that is now the North Carolina Courage, which fired him after The Athletic report. He denied having sex with players.

Covington & Burling is also set to review past investigative reports into complaints of discrimination, harassment, and abuse, and potentially reopen them. The team will be headed by Amanda Kramer, who was Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

It will report to a new three-woman executive committee made up of team officials from around the league, including Amanda Duffy, who in 2019 was president of the league, holding the position for a year before going to the Orlando Pride, Angie Long, majority owner of Kansas City NWSL, and Sophie Sauvage, an NWSL board member representing OL Reign.

The league said the investigations will include a review of practices and policies at the league and club levels, including workplace policies for each club in the league, league-mandated anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policy, and processes for handling violations of those policies, and that new policies could follow.

“On behalf of the entire league, we are heartbroken for what far too many players have had to endure in order to simply play the game they love, and we are so incredibly sorry,” said the new executive committee, in a joint statement. “We understand that we must undertake a significant systematic and cultural transformation to address the issues required to become the type of league that NWSL players and their fans deserve and regain the trust of both.”

Baird resigned late Friday amid growing criticism of the league’s handling of the Riley case and other instances of alleged abuse. Earlier Friday, the NWSL sad that this weekend’s matches would not be played as scheduled.

Public attention to the Riley case came on the heels of other reports in recent months of abusive or inappropriate behavior by coaches or executives at several teams, including the Utah Royals FC and the Washington Spirit.

Star players including Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan had taken to Twitter to criticize the league’s lack of earlier action in the Riley case, and also pointed to endemic abuse in earlier iterations of professional women’s soccer leagues.

“The league was informed of these allegations multiple times,” wrote Morgan, who played under Riley at Portland several years ago. “The league must accept responsibility for a process that failed to protect its own players from this abuse.”

Morgan was not the focus of The Athletic story, which included detailed allegations by retired player Sinead Farrelly of multiple incidents in which she felt coerced into having sex with her coach.

Morgan on Thursday posted emails with Baird from earlier this year in which Morgan said she had raised concerns about Riley, during the 2015 investigation, that were not looked into.

Baird and the NWSL said on Thursday they had referred the report about Riley’s to the U.S. Center for SafeSport, which investigates allegations of sexual misconduct in amateur sports—including members of amateur sports bodies who also work in professional leagues. The NWSL requires coaches to have a license from U.S. Soccer.

On Friday, the Center’s searchable database listed Riley as having received a temporary suspension from U.S. Soccer due to “allegations of misconduct.”

U.S. Soccer, which helped found the NWSL, said on Friday it would hire an investigator to examine the allegations in the Athletic.

FIFA, the international football association, also said its judicial bodies had opened a preliminary investigation.

Write to Louise Radnofsky at [email protected]

source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/nwsl-misconduct-allegations-11633297640

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