The National Women’s Soccer League announced Monday that it had terminated the contracts of Orlando Pride coach Amanda Cromwell and assistant Sam Greene after finding the two had engaged in retaliatory conduct.
The league made the announcement in a statement following a joint investigation by the NWSL and NWSL Players Association, with the Pride voicing support for the decision.
“Cromwell’s and Greene’s employment contracts are terminated effective immediately. Cromwell and Greene are ineligible to work in the NWSL in any capacity unless or until approved by the Commissioner,” the NWSL said in a statement.
Pride owner Mark Wilf issued the following statement shortly after: “Our organization has received a review of the findings regarding retaliatory conduct toward Pride players and supports the actions taken by the National Women’s Soccer League, including the league’s decision to terminate the contracts of Amanda Cromwell and Sam Greene, effective immediately.”
Cromwell and Greene were placed on temporary administrative leave on June 6 by the NWSL and NWSLPA, pending an investigation into a violation of the NWSL discrimination, harassment and bullying policy for “alleged retaliation.”
Later on Monday, Cromwell responded with a statement of her own, in which she said: “I am saddened and disappointed by the results of the NWSL’s investigation released today. I believe the investigation lacked transparency, professionalism and thoroughness and as a result my character and integrity have been mischaracterized.”
Cromwell further alleged that the accusations of “retaliatory” behavior stemmed from her decision to waive a certain player “based on performance and conduct that was detrimental to the team culture.”
That decision, she wrote, had been approved by the club.
“Throughout this process, I have remained silent as I have fully cooperated with biased and incomplete investigation in an effort to clear my name and protect the reputation I have built both as a professional player and a coach for nearly 40 years,” Cromwell added in her statement. She said she would be “reviewing all legal options.”
Seb Hines took over in an interim role for Cromwell after she was placed on leave with the Pride missing out on the NWSL postseason after the season ended on Oct. 1.
The news about Cromwell and Greene comes one week after the release of a report by former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Q. Yates found emotional abuse and sexual misconduct were systemic in the league. Yates did not investigate Orlando or find wrongdoing on Cromwell’s part, but the report’s release did highlight increased scrutiny on coaches within the NWSL due to widespread allegations of abuse from players.
The joint investigation by the NWSL and NWSLPA into misconduct in the league is still ongoing.
U.S. Soccer Federation president Cindy Parlow Cone said that additional allegations of abuse have come to light since the publication of the Yates report on Monday.
Parlow Cone made the disclosure of at least three additional cases in a pair of interviews with CNN. According to CNN’s report, Parlow Cone didn’t provide any additional details but said the cases have been passed on to the U.S. Center for SafeSport.
“One of the great things to come out of this report is that it is encouraging more people to come forward,” Parlow Cone said during separate interviews with CNN’s Brianna Keilar on “New Day” and Amanda Davies on “World Sport.”
The investigation, which was a year in the making and included interviews with 200 people, revealed that abuse and misconduct in the NWSL — including verbal and emotional abuse and sexual misconduct — had become systemic, spanning multiple teams, coaches and victims.
The report added that “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.”
While a culture of silence and indifference permeated reports of misconduct in the past, Parlow Cone said she hoped that people felt safe to come forward and report instances of abuse, adding: “We’re not going to be able to root it out unless more brave people come forward to tell us.”
Parlow Cone, a former U.S. international, herself reported an incident of sexual harassment during her time as manager of the Portland Thorns.
She has said she reported the incident when she was leaving the franchise.
“Society needs to change as well, and evolve, and to make it safer for women to come forward to complain about this in the workplace or on a team,” she said.
“This is going to be a long process. It’s not going to be a quick fix.”
LONDON — United States women’s national coach Vlatko Andonovski said he was proud of his players for “even being on the field” after they lost 2-1 to England at Wembley Stadium on Friday, just days after the release of a report detailing systemic abuse in women’s soccer in the U.S.
The independent investigative report from Sally Yates released on Monday, detailed systemic abuse within the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and that league officials and governing body U.S. Soccer failed to adequately protect players.
Given that buildup, Andonovski was full of praise for the mentality of his roster.
“Obviously, it’s been an extremely difficult week for everybody and I’m proud of the players for even being on the field and playing the game,” he said. “It wasn’t easy.
“For some of them who were in the environment to see and experience everything they went through, I applaud their bravery and I applaud their fearless mentality and relentlessness. Once again, they showed that nothing can stop them playing the game that they love. I’m very proud of them and hoping we never have to go through that again.”
The U.S. was beaten by first-half goals from England’s Lauren Hemp and Georgia Stanway in front of a sellout crowd of almost 77,000 at Wembley. Sophia Smith scored for the U.S., which was also controversially denied a second goal when the video assistant referee ruled there had been an offside in the buildup.
But the game was about far more than the events on the field.
Players from England and the USWNT came together before kickoff to unveil a banner showing their support for victims of sexual abuse.
The players held a banner saying “Protect The Players” in the center circle, while Wembley’s arch above the stadium was lit teal for 15 minutes before kickoff. Both teams also wore teal armbands in a show of solidarity.
“It was a special moment when the players got together and had the banner in front of them,” Andonovski added.
“It gave me goose bumps to see the support from the fans that applauded the moment. It was a statement that we have to stop sexual violence and once again the players did an incredible job in using this game and event as a platform to fight against it.”
Added England manager Sarina Wiegman: “It was very important. We all wanted to play our part in being supportive. It’s very horrible that these situations occur. For the victims it was horrible, and now they have to re-live it again. It should stop.
“Now people are speaking up and it’s very strong, and we need to make sure it’s going to change and it doesn’t happen anymore.
“We celebrated lots of things today but when this happens, you can’t just let it go. The time is now, we use this momentum to spread the word that it’s unacceptable and horrible what is happening.”
USWNT veteran Megan Rapinoe spoke on the eve of the match and said she was “emotionally exhausted” after processing the report and called for accountability for those the report found were complicit in covering up the abuse.
Rapinoe said the report was “devastating in every single way” but praised the USWNT team for “how we were able to take that on and continue to do our job” ahead of Friday’s match.
Monday saw the release of the independent investigation commissioned by the U.S. Soccer Federation and conducted by former U.S. deputy attorney general Sally Yates, which chronicled the extent to which abuse and sexual misconduct in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) was overlooked and ignored “systemically” by executives, coaches and club owners.
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.
With the release of the E60 documentary, “Truth Be Told,” the powerful story of the reckoning in women’s professional soccer from the point of view of those who experienced it first hand, we are publishing the full interview from USWNT international Alex Morgan, who spoke at length about the situation in Portland as well as her role in trying to escalate and elevate the allegations around Riley during his time at the club. Morgan was also a teammate of Mana Shim (2013-17) and Sinead Farrelly (2014-15) during her time with the Thorns from 2013 to 2015.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This has been lightly edited for clarity.
ESPN: What do you remember of your teammate Mana Shim in Portland?
Alex Morgan: I remember Mana as a rookie in 2013, as someone who was just so happy and also so good at soccer. The ball just stuck to her foot. She was someone that just made me smile and made me immediately comfortable being around her — I could just be myself. And she just was a people person — like, people gravitated towards her.
ESPN: What do you remember of the coaching change that would come after Cindy Parlow Cone?
Morgan: I remember Cindy deciding not to continue, and us kind of feeling like we are on top of the world winning in 2013 after our first season of the NWSL. And hearing about a coaching change with Paul Riley stepping into place. And it was a big hire by the club. He had been successful. He had a lot of players that spoke highly of him, a lot of players that didn’t speak highly of him. And so there was a lot of question marks, but he was definitely highly regarded in the soccer community.
ESPN: What do you remember of what it was like when Riley did come in and start coaching the Thorns?
Morgan: When Paul came in and started to implement his style of coaching, there was not the mutual respect, I would say, from players and himself that I think he was used to, maybe. Because he was used to coming in and immediately controlling everything and everyone within the team.
He didn’t like big personalities. He liked people that were going to say yes and players that were going to do anything he said, anything he wanted us to do. And I think that there were some players, including myself, that asked questions, maybe too many questions. And he didn’t like that. And I think that with that, it was a struggle, the first season under Paul — and it only got worse.
ESPN: When you would ask questions… I mean, you were a highly regarded national team player. What kind of response would you get?
Morgan: It was interesting, being coached by Paul and knowing that he didn’t like people asking questions, and he didn’t want myself or fellow national team players questioning him as a coach. I think he had his style of wanting to win over players and make sure players knew that he was the reason for their success, but he struggled with players that were already successful.
And so coming in, Paul, he just struggled to capture the heart of the team because he wanted to implement his direction of the team. When he was questioned, he then used manipulation tactics to try to break down the team and show that he was the one and only person that could create success on the team.
It wasn’t the players going to each other or us going to other coaches: It was him. Everything went through Paul. And so it was a really different way of coaching that we were not used to, with Portland or for me at all in my history of playing soccer.
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2:37
Alex Morgan shares her frustration at the NWSL’s failure to support Meleana Shim after speaking out against Paul Riley in this behind-the-scenes clip from E60: Truth Be Told, available now on ESPN+.
ESPN: Was there anything that you remember that sticks out to you of how he used his power to, like you said, manipulate these players who were the fringe players?
Morgan: Paul would have this coaching tactic of — at the end of the day, it’s verbal abuse — but he would break down players… Mana, a couple of other players that were just fighting to get some playing time. He would break them down in a way that if they weren’t playing up to a standard in a training or in a game, he would rip into them at halftime.
One time with a player who was with us in 2015, [Riley] just tore into her and about how bad of a mother she was and how all of these personal attacks that had absolutely nothing to do with the game and it made all of us uncomfortable. But he would do that and then two days later, we would be back at training after an off day and he would just be smiling as if nothing happened.
He didn’t just verbally attack somebody. Like, he didn’t just attack our personalities, us as people, rather than soccer players. And it was weird because you were like, “I’m sorry, I was there when you did this, but were you there? Do you remember this?” And he would go through this pattern of breaking someone down and then lifting them up and being like, “I could help you get to where you want to be.”
And so it was a manipulation tactic that I think wore on a lot of players, but especially players who were struggling to get playing time or get [on the roster]. All they wanted was validation that they deserved to be there, and he would do it in a way that really made them feel like they could only have confidence when he gave them confidence.
ESPN: When was the first time that you remember that Mana confided in you about what was happening with her with Paul Riley?
Morgan: Early 2015 is when Mana confided in me that Paul was really crossing the line. He did a couple of things in particular, like asking her to go over to his hotel room to watch film, and then opening the door in his boxers and closing the door behind her and asking her to sit in his bed. Or asking if she wanted to come to the World Cup final in Vancouver, with him sending along the reservation of the hotel that had a king-size bed and not two rooms or two beds.
So, a couple of things that he did and said via text message that she relayed to me and this only progressed, and Mana really struggled with it in 2015. I tried to help her as much as possible, but I was gone a lot with the national team so I really didn’t get a sense of how bad it was until I came back from Vancouver and she showed me text messages and shared with me the things that he did that crossed the line and were just straight-up sexual harassment. And we kind of started from square one on: Well, how do we approach this? How do we report this? How do we hold someone like this accountable?
ESPN: And what did you do?
Morgan: When Mana told me that she was ready to report him, although she was scared to lose her job as a soccer player, she didn’t know the right way to do that. She wanted to anonymously report him because then she wouldn’t be at risk of retribution, and I told her that I would do everything I could to find a contact for HR within the league or within the Portland Thorns and Timbers organization.
At the league, I couldn’t find anything. I couldn’t find [an] HR contact, I couldn’t find an anonymous hotline. I couldn’t even find an anti-harassment policy that might layout exactly what he was doing that was reportable. So I eventually had to go to the Portland Thorns organization and call and just ask around if there was anyone at HR that they can share a contact with me for, and that I didn’t really want to share what it was about, but I really would like the contact information of that person.
I finally got that information and shared that with Mana, and at that point she reported him. And that was late 2015.
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2:54
Jeff Carlisle breaks down the details of U.S. Soccer’s independent investigation into player abuse in the National Women’s Soccer League.
ESPN: What was it like hearing Mana tell you these things that had been happening to her?
Morgan: It was really hard to see a teammate going through what Mana was going through in 2015 because first of all, I had never personally experienced that before, but I also never had a teammate experience that and confide in me in the way that she did, and all I wanted to do was support Mana. I deeply cared for Mana. She still is one of my best friends today, but I didn’t know what to do other than support her by me being there.
I knew I wanted to get Paul out of coaching. I wanted to hold him accountable. I wanted to hold the Portland Thorns organization accountable, but I didn’t know how. I just wanted to take Mana’s direction and support her in any way possible, but it was hard navigating that and showing up to training and games every day, knowing that Paul was trying to use his position of power to harass and assault Mana.
She was in an impossible position.
ESPN: When she does eventually report him and the Thorns say that they’re going to take care of it, what do you remember of the sequence of events after that?
Morgan: I remember Mana reporting Paul to the league in late 2015, and the only reason she waited that long is because she didn’t want to be cut from the team before the end of the season. She didn’t want Paul to find out and for him to either bench her, or waive her or cut her. So she waited, and she shared with me the email that she was drafting to the league — to Jeff Plush, the commissioner at the time. And she also, I believe, CC’d either Merritt [Paulson, Portland Thorns owner] or Gavin [Wilkinson, Thorns GM] as well. And we went over that email together before she sent it, and she laid it all out there. And at that point then I believe Jeff Plush responded.
I believe Portland had an investigation with a very narrow scope. I was interviewed, I believe, for 15 or 20 minutes — such a short interview that I actually can’t even recall the questions from the interview, and that was it. There was no conclusion from the investigation, nothing reported back to us based on the findings or recommendation. Paul Riley and Portland Thorns went their separate ways, and Gavin and Merritt wished Paul well.
ESPN: What was going through your head as they released that statement?
Morgan: It was really difficult to see that the Thorns “parted ways” with Paul Riley rather than firing him — I don’t even know if it was released that they were letting him go, I think it was that they parted ways. And at that time it was really devastating because I had helped Mana do the right thing, which was reporting Paul to the league and hoping that they would take action and hold him accountable, and she went through all the right steps to report someone who was sexually harassing her, to stop what was being done that was incredibly wrong, and she was failed.
She was failed by the system, and I think that was the hardest thing at the time was: What do we do now? Does Mana just move on? How do you move on from this? And Paul just soon after got picked up by North Carolina and — was it North Carolina?
ESPN: Western New York.
Morgan: It was Western New York, and they moved. He got picked up by Western New York as the head coach and at that point, like, is Mana supposed to continue to play against this coach in the league, and see this coach possibly do the same thing to players on a new team? It was devastating. We didn’t know what to do.
ESPN: Mana told me that it meant a lot to her that you had told her, “I’m never going to shake his hand again.”
Morgan: Yeah, I never shook his hand. And he started to — people caught on that I did not respect Paul in the slightest, that I would not shake his hand. I would not look at him at the end of the game when we were playing against Western New York and what came to be North Carolina, because I was disgusted and I was saddened by Mana’s situation.
I just knew that he needed to be held accountable one day and that it would happen one day, but it took years for that to happen. And I told Mana that I had her back no matter what. I just wanted to support her and help her in holding people accountable that needed to be held accountable. It’s just sad that it took years and years of us forcing people’s hand to remove him from his position of power.
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2:08
Alex Morgan calls out former NWSL commissioner Lisa Baird for her failure to address allegations against Paul Riley in this bonus footage from E60: Truth Be Told, available now on ESPN+.
ESPN: Mana told us that she felt like she’d done everything, you both had done everything that you felt like you could at the time. And it wasn’t until 2020 when Sinead [Farrelly] actually opened up to her about her own experiences that Mana felt the empowerment again to try to go at this again. Did she ever talk with you about her reattempt to make sure that Riley was held accountable for his actions?
Morgan: In July of 2020, Mana called me, and she said that she had had a few conversations with Sinead, and she said that she couldn’t believe Paul was still in power, but if people needed to hear her story to remove him from his position of power, then that’s what needed to happen.
She asked if I could help her find a legal team to take him down, to do the right steps, to finally force him to be held accountable. And that’s what we did from July 2020 on, until the article was released by The Athletic. We worked on it meticulously and spent so many hours with our legal and strategy team, with her legal and strategy team, to find a way to put the NWSL in a corner where they had to move forward by protecting players, restructure a league that so desperately needed to protect us and grow and evolve because it was stuck. This league was stuck in a place that didn’t protect players, that didn’t serve its players first and foremost.
And that’s what we set our mission on in July 2020, and that evolved eventually into the article that was released and the firing of Paul in the fall of 2021.
ESPN: What were you feeling when that article was released?
Morgan: On Sept. 30th when the article was finally released, I remember where I was. I was in Seattle, and I was talking to Mana on the phone every day for a week leading up to that. And it was just so many emotions but mostly a sigh of relief because our goal was for Paul to not even step on the field as a head coach in 2021, but it took so many more months to put together, to investigate, for The Athletic to investigate everything, for us to really work with our legal team in finding the best way for Mana to share her story and for Sinead, too.
And so it took months longer than we expected for the article to finally be released, but once we knew it was, and I believe within hours of that happening, Paul was fired. It was just a huge sigh of relief.
ESPN: You put in a lot of work to help Mana, to make sure that this happened. Why?
Morgan: With me being someone that Mana confided in initially, back in 2015, I told her that I wanted to support her and help her in any way possible, whether that was to forget it, whether that was to take down Paul and all that needed to be held accountable — I told her, whatever she needed. She’s one of my best friends, and in 2020 when I got the call that she had spoken with Sinead and that she was ready to share her story and take down Paul, I was ready to do anything and everything possible knowing that I deeply care for Mana, and I deeply care for the state of soccer in the U.S., for the NWSL and the future of the NWSL. I knew there needed to be change.
I felt like at the time in 2020 when we started on this mission, to get Paul fired and to implement policies within the NWSL that still had not been implemented after nine years — basic workplace policies, anti-harassment policies that were non-existent in the NWSL — we realized that there was so much more work to do than trying to get Paul fired. We realized that the NWSL was in a state that was not only fragile and short-staffed and in dire need of changing and looking at itself in the mirror; we realized that it just didn’t protect players.
At the end of the day, players were not protected. I felt like in my position, I’m in a position where if I stood up and said that things weren’t good enough, I think people would listen, and I knew that Mana needed me to help her share her story and do what we needed to do. So that’s what I did. I just told her that I was all-in — I’m not really a half-in type person — and if she needed me and this league needed me, then I was here to force their hand in changing the league.
ESPN: Lisa Baird put out a statement right after this news broke saying that she was “shocked and disgusted.” What did you think reading that?
Morgan: We talked with our legal team weekly. I keep saying “our” because I actually feel like for two years, we talked weekly, so I was part of it. We talked with our legal team weekly and we thought of every angle. We thought of what if they say this? What if they do that? What if they say, “Oh, there is basic workplace policies?” Okay, well, show us.
So we did things where I would send off emails to Lisa Baird. I would ask for a call with Lisa Baird. I was on a call with her and [President of the National Women’s Soccer League Players Association] Tori Huster and [NWSL General Counsel] Lisa Levine, and asked for these basic workplace policies. Lisa Levine said, “They’re somewhere. I’m sure I’ll be able to find them.” And I was like, “Okay, great. We’ll be waiting.” Weeks went by, nothing happened.
We drafted policies for the NWSL with our legal team and handed them to the NWSL, and then still had to ask our PA [Players Association] to put a timeline on when they needed to be implemented and given out to all players and staff. Before the season of 2021, we asked them before the first game of season starts, “We need these policies to be in place.” They pushed back, the league pushed back, the Lisas pushed back. Sinead and Mana both sent emails that we all looked at, multiple drafts of these emails asking them to look into the sexual harassment and assault from Paul Riley from years back.
Lisa Baird’s email back: “We’re doing what we can. We’ll look into it. We’ll get back to you.” Nothing.
So when this article was finally released and there’s a sigh of relief on our side and just utter shock from the rest of the soccer community — we had already known everything. We tried to give the league a chance and time again to do the right thing. I wanted so deeply for Lisa Baird to just stand up and say, “I’m sorry. I didn’t do enough. I didn’t look into enough. I trusted our general counsel, Lisa Levine, too much. We were too understaffed. We didn’t have enough people in the room to really make calculated decisions,” but she didn’t. She said she was shocked and disgusted, and that was surprising because that was a lie.
ESPN: And what did you do?
Morgan: I got on a group text, one that was very active between Mana, Sinead and our legal and strategy team, and we talked about what needed to happen, and a tweet was the best course of action for that.
ESPN: And what do you remember of the response?
Morgan: I remember Lisa putting in her letter of resignation.
ESPN: How did that make you feel?
Morgan: I wish I could say that it made me feel good, but it didn’t because I care for this league so much. And I just wanted the people in charge to not only be held accountable, but also to just lead this league out of a dark time, just to raise their hand and say that they hadn’t done things right before but, ‘Moving forward, we’re going to do everything we can.’ And it was hard to know the people in charge at the time just wouldn’t do that. They still wouldn’t accept the failures that they saw and did and own up to it.
So it was really hard seeing Lisa Baird resign because I didn’t want her in charge anymore, but who was going to step in now? It was a really difficult time in the NWSL because not only were they understaffed, but now, the head of the league, the commissioner is now stepping down too because of failures on her part, so where do we go from here? Who’s going to lead now? It was really hard.
Portland Thorns owner Merritt Paulson and Chicago Red Stars owner Arnim Whisler are both stepping away from decision-making roles with their respective National Women’s Soccer League clubs until the findings are released from an ongoing investigation into numerous reports of sexual misconduct and abuse around the league.
Paulson, who is also the owner of Major League Soccer’s Portland Timbers, announced his decision in a statement Tuesday, one day after the release of the findings of a disturbing independent investigation into the NWSL’s abuse commissioned by U.S. Soccer. A concurrent investigation is still being conducted jointly by the league and the players’ union, and Paulson plans to step away until its completion.
“Yesterday’s Yates report unveiling was the darkest day I have experienced, and I know the same is true for everyone else who loves our team and our league,” Paulson said. “I know it was even harder and darker for those whose stories were shared publicly. I cannot apologize enough for our role in a gross systemic failure to protect player safety and the missteps we made in 2015. I am truly sorry.”
Later on Tuesday, Whisler, who also serves on the NWSL board of governors, made a similar move with the Red Stars, announcing in a statement: “Our organization is committed to rebuilding trust and respect among players and staff towards our league and club, and I recognize that my current presence is a distraction. I do not want to take any of the attention away from the players’ incredible and well earned playoff run.
“So in the interest of the club and the players, and fans we serve, effective immediately, I will remove myself from my governance role within the NWSL board of governors and will hand over operational control of the club to our executive team in Chicago.”
Yates’ report found that Whisler dismissed concerns from players about the abusive behavior of Red Stars coach Rory Dames, who resigned Nov. 21, 2021, amid accusations of verbal and emotional abuse by several players.
Gavin Wilkinson and Mike Golub, who have both served in executive roles with Paulson’s teams, are also stepping away from the Thorns, who are headed into the NWSL playoffs. Paulson’s statement didn’t indicate whether the trio will also step away from the Timbers, and Paulson gave no indication he plans to sell his teams.
NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman issued the following statement Tuesday in support of the two owners’ decisions: “The NWSL is supportive of the important steps taken by the Portland Thorns and Chicago Red Stars today. As the League continues to evaluate the Yates report, I want to assure you that we remain committed to implementing reform and disciplinary action, both as a result of the Yates Report and the NWSL/NWSLPA’s Joint Investigative Team’s findings.”
Berman added that the NWSL’s joint investigative team was working towards concluding their report by the end of the year.
In the report filed by former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, Paulson is accused of enabling and supporting former Thorns coach Paul Riley after Riley was accused of harassment and sexual coercion by players Sinead Farrelly and Mana Shim. The investigation also found that Paulson and Wilkinson made inappropriate workplace comments to women.
Golub is accused of making inappropriate sexual remarks in 2013 to former Thorns coach Cindy Parlow Cone, now the president of U.S. Soccer. Golub has previously faced criticism for his workplace behavior and his tolerance for others’ misbehavior.
In her investigative report, Yates also accused Thorns management of not being forthcoming with information around Riley’s departure from the team in 2015, writing that the club “interfered with our access to relevant witnesses and raised specious legal arguments in an attempt to impede our use of relevant documents.”
The Thorns didn’t announce why they weren’t renewing Riley’s contract that year, and Paulson subsequently vouched for Riley as he landed a job with the Western New York Flash, which subsequently became the North Carolina Courage. Riley was with the Courage until being fired in September 2021 after allegations of his misconduct were made public.
Heather Davis, the general counsel for the Thorns, will oversee the team’s decisions in Paulson’s absence.
“I very much appreciate your patience and believe it’s critical that the process play out with the Joint Investigation,” Paulson wrote in his announcement of his decision. “I love the Portland Thorns and women’s soccer, and am taking these steps with those interests in mind.”
Information from the Associated Press was used in this story.
The independent investigation into player abuse in women’s professional soccer found a long list of failures by National Women’s Soccer League coaches and executives, as well as the United States Soccer Federation itself.
“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 report read. “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.”
The summary report, a copy of which was obtained by ESPN, also details recommendations for the USSF to implement going forward. The investigation was conducted by former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, on behalf of the USSF.
The report includes a previously undisclosed revelation as to the manner of Racing Louisville’s firing of Christy Holly as manager back in August 2021. The report details how Holly called a player, identified as Erin Simon, in for a film session, stating he would touch her “for every pass” she made a mistake on. (ESPN’s policy is to not publicly identify victims of abuse, but Simon, through a spokesperson, agreed to be identified.)
Holly then proceeded to put his hand “down her pants and up her shirt.” Simon would try to “tightly cross her legs and push him away, laughing to avoid angering him,” adds the report, stating that when her teammate picked her up to drive home, Simon broke down crying.
Holly was later fired for cause, though the reason for his firing wasn’t publicly disclosed.
“There are too many athletes who still suffer in silence because they are scared that no one will help them or hear them,” Simon said in a statement through a spokesperson. “I know because that is how I felt. Through many difficult days, my faith alone sustained me and kept me going. I want to do everything in my power to ensure that no other player must experience what I did. This report allows our voices to finally be heard and is the first step toward achieving the respectful workplace we all deserve. It is my sincere hope that the pain we have all experienced and the change we have all brought about will be for the good of our league and this game we all deeply love.”
In a statement, USSF president Cindy Parlow Cone said: “This investigation’s findings are heartbreaking and deeply troubling. The abuse described is inexcusable and has no place on any playing field, in any training facility or workplace. As the national governing body for our sport, U.S. Soccer 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. We are taking the immediate action that we can today, and will convene leaders in soccer at all levels across the country to collaborate on the recommendations so we can create meaningful, long-lasting change throughout the soccer ecosystem.”
The investigation was initiated following a report in The Athletic in 2021 that detailed allegations of sexual harassment and coercion from 2015 made against former Portland Thorns manager Paul Riley. Former Thorns players Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly alleged that Riley invited both players back to his apartment and asked them to kiss each other in exchange for getting the team out of a conditioning drill the next day, as well as drinking with players and sending lewd photos to Shim.
The Thorns fired Riley following an investigation, though they failed to follow up on additional allegations from Farrelly that included having a sexual relationship with him. The allegations against Riley were by no means unique.
The report stated: “Players described a pattern of sexually charged comments, unwanted sexual advances and sexual touching, and coercive sexual intercourse.”
The abuse by coaches wasn’t always sexual in nature, the report found, with former Chicago Red Stars manager Rory Dames among those found to have verbally and emotionally abused players.
“We heard report after report of relentless, degrading tirades; manipulation that was about power, not improving performance; and retaliation against those who attempted to come forward,” the report read.
Among the report’s findings was that throughout the league’s existence, teams, the NWSL and USSF failed to put in place basic measures for player safety. The report also detailed how abuse in the NWSL was systemic and that NWSL teams, the league and the federation failed to adequately address reports and evidence of misconduct.
“Teams, the League, and the Federation not only repeatedly failed to respond appropriately when confronted with player reports and evidence of abuse, they also failed to institute basic measures to prevent and address it, even as some leaders privately acknowledged the need for workplace protections,” the report read. “As a result, abusive coaches moved from team to team, laundered by press releases thanking them for their service, and positive references from teams that minimized or even concealed misconduct. Those at the NWSL and USSF in a position to correct the record stayed silent. And no one at the teams, the League, or the Federation demanded better of coaches.”
Because the teams, the NWSL and USSF failed to identify and inform others of coaches’ misconduct, the abuse was allowed to continue. This was due in part to a culture of abuse, silence and fear of retaliation due to a lack of job security.
The report also provided more details as to how Riley was allowed to continue coaching in the NWSL, despite being fired for cause by the Thorns following the aforementioned abuse allegations. Former NWSL commissioner Jeff Plush, in an email to then USSF president Sunil Gulati, USSF CEO Dan Flynn and USSF general counsel Lisa Levine, conveyed his understanding that Thorns president of soccer Gavin Wilkinson told the Western New York Flash that Riley was “put in a bad position by the player,” and that Wilkinson would “hire [Riley] in a heartbeat.”
ESPN previously reported that Wilkinson had given the Flash a positive job referral for Riley. He was hired by the club in early 2016. Although Plush, Gulati, Flynn and Levine all had received Shim’s detailed complaint — and Plush and Levine received a 2015 Thorns report — none appeared to provide the Flash with additional information.
ESPN also reported that later, when Riley was in contention for the managerial position for the U.S. women’s national team, Thorns owner Merritt Paulson told North Carolina Courage counterpart Steve Malik it would be “a good idea” for Riley to withdraw. The Yates report details how following “at least fourteen conversations among eleven people at the Federation, the League, the Portland Thorns, and the NC Courage, Riley publicly withdrew himself from consideration.” But during those conversations, USSF chief legal officer Lydia Wahlke never conveyed a report that Riley had a “relationship with a Portland player to the League, others at the Federation, or the Courage.
The report found that three organizations — the Chicago Red Stars, the Portland Thorns and Racing Louisville — didn’t fully cooperate with the Yates investigation, despite public statements to the contrary.
“The Portland Thorns interfered with our access to relevant witnesses and raised specious legal arguments in an attempt to impede our use of relevant documents,” the report read. “Racing Louisville FC refused to produce documents concerning Christy Holly and would not permit witnesses (even former employees) to answer relevant questions regarding Holly’s tenure, citing non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements it signed with Holly. The Chicago Red Stars unnecessarily delayed the production of relevant documents over the course of nearly nine months.”
The report added that the Thorns tried to claim that certain information, including the Thorns’ 2015 report of their investigation into Riley, was protected by attorney-client privilege or common interest privilege “despite evidence to the contrary.” The Thorns only relented after a period of months after the initial requests by investigators.
“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,” the report stated.
That wasn’t the only failing of the NWSL and the USSF.
Even in cases where the federation and/or the league was aware of the misconduct, the report adds, it typically did nothing to correct the team’s inaccurate description or minimized the coach’s misconduct. For example, the Portland Thorns, the Federation, and the League failed to ensure Riley’s conduct was accurately disclosed to Western New York Flash or North Carolina Courage.
Despite such interference, the investigation conducted over 200 interviews, including over 100 past and present NWSL players.
In terms of recommendations, the report called for greater transparency so abusive coaches can’t move from team to team. This includes eliminating the use of nondisclosure and non-disparagement agreements that serve to shield information about abusive coaches.
In terms of accountability for the behavior, the report acknowledged that this responsibility lies mostly with the NWSL and its teams. The USSF is not empowered to sanction executives and team owners. But the report noted that, “No organization took ownership over player safety,” and that the USSF could put additional teeth into its licensing requirements, requiring coaches to get annual recertification. The report also recommended suspending the licenses of coaches found to have engaged in misconduct, which in the case of Riley, the USSF had already done.
The report also recommended that the USSF should require the NWSL to “conduct timely investigations into allegations of abuse, impose appropriate discipline, and immediately disseminate investigation outcomes.”
Clear rules were needed regarding what constituted prohibited behavior to whom the policies applied, concluded the report, while noting that the current prohibited conduct policy, which sets forth USSF’s anti-harassment and anti-bullying policy, does not apply to professional leagues or non-national team players.
To better establish a single point of contact for player safety, the report recommended that the USSF, the NWSL and teams should each designate an individual within their organizations who is responsible for player safety. It recommended that the USSF should also require the NWSL to solicit feedback from players via surveys and provide the results to the USSF.
In terms of discipline, the report recommended that while none of the coaches mentioned are still coaching in the league, some executives and owners still are. “The NWSL should determine whether discipline is warranted in light of these findings and the findings of the NWSL/NWSLPA Joint Investigation,” the report read.
The investigation was initiated on Oct. 2, 2021, a day after The Athletic report was published. The USSF retained Yates and the law firm King & Spalding to conduct an investigation. A parallel investigation is also being conducted by the NWSL and the NWSL Players Association. A source with knowledge of the Yates investigation acknowledged that while the two investigations did share information on occasion, they were done separately.
The NWSLPA released the following statement on Monday after the findings were released: “As difficult as this report is to read, it has been even more painful for Players, whether known or unknown, to live it. We appreciate their efforts to seek the truth in support of our work to transform NWSL.
“The NWSL Players Association’s joint investigation with NWSL is separate from the U.S. Soccer investigation and remains ongoing. This joint investigation is a product of our collective action; to our knowledge, this is the first investigation of its kind where Players have direct access to evidence through our own representatives, an oversight role, and a voice in the process. Our goal is to marshal all the facts to inform evidence-based recommendations about how to advance the goal of a league centered on player safety. We appreciate the recommendation of Sally Yates and her team to NWSL to take further action through our joint investigation, and we expect full cooperation from both U.S. Soccer and all NWSL Clubs with our joint investigation.”
In a news release in conjunction with the findings of the Yates investigation, the USSF announced it was already instituting some changes as it relates to player safety. These include: establishing a new office of participant safety to oversee the USSF’s conduct policies and reporting mechanisms; publishing soccer records from SafeSport’s centralized disciplinary database to publicly identify individuals in the sport who have been disciplined, suspended or banned; and mandating a uniform minimum standard for background checks for all U.S. Soccer members at every level of the game, including youth soccer, to comport with United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee standards.
In addition to those most steps, the USSF has created a new committee of the board of directors to address the report’s recommendations going forward. The committee will be chaired by former U.S. women’s national team player Danielle Slaton alongside U.S. Club Soccer CEO Mike Cullina, the vice chair.
A statement from the USWNTPA in reaction to the report recognized the bravery of those who spoke out and asked the USSF to act on the findings.
“All players and employees deserve to work in an environment free of discrimination, harassment, and abusive conduct,” it read. “The USWNTPA commends the courage of the survivors, current players, and former players who came forward to speak out against abusive practices that have become far too normalized in the NWSL and women’s soccer generally. At the same time, USWNTPA is dismayed that some NWSL clubs and USSF staff impeded the investigation; those who have not done so should fully cooperate with the ongoing NWSL/NWSLPA investigation immediately.
“Finally, although it should not have taken an independent investigator to bring light to these practices and to recommend common sense reforms, USWNTPA urges USSF to implement the recommendations immediately, and it stands ready to work with its partners at the NWSLPA, FIFPro, USSF, NWSL, and FIFA to prioritize player safety across the sport.”
“Truth Be Told — The Fight For Women’s Professional Soccer” debuts Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN, ESPN+
