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    Women’s Soccer Bans Ex-Coaches and Fines Teams After Misconduct Report

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    Findings released in December revealed a number of issues throughout the league, including several instances of sexual and emotional abuse.The National Women’s Soccer League on Monday permanently banned four former coaches, suspended other league officials, and fined several teams, following a report last month that detailed alleged abuse and misconduct across the league.Paul Riley, a former North Carolina Courage coach; Rory Dames, a former Chicago Red Stars coach; Richie Burke, a former Washington Spirit coach; and Christy Holly, a former Racing Louisville F.C. coach, were permanently banned from the league for alleged misconduct ranging from inappropriate comments to, in the case of Holly, groping a player.The Red Stars were fined $1.5 million, and Portland Thorns F.C. were fined $1 million for failure to properly act on allegations of misconduct.Craig Harrington, the former Utah Royal F.C. coach, and Alyse LaHue, the former general manager of Gotham F.C., each received two-year suspensions from the league. Harrington was found to have “made inappropriate sexual and objectifying comments,” and LaHue was found to have sent players inappropriate messages, the N.W.S.L. report said.The league said in a statement on Monday that the sweeping disciplinary actions were based on a 128-page report released in December. The report, a joint effort organized by the N.W.S.L. and its players’ union, revealed a number of disturbing problems throughout the league, including instances of sexual abuse, unwanted sexual advances, emotional abuse, racist remarks, and retaliation against players who complained about how they were treated.“Players from marginalized backgrounds, or with the least job security, were often targets of misconduct,” the report said. “At the same time, these players faced the greatest barriers to speaking out about or obtaining redress for what they experienced.”Jessica Berman, the league’s commissioner, said in a statement that the “corrective action” announced on Monday was “appropriate and necessary.”“The league will continue to prioritize implementing and enhancing the policies, programs and systems that put the health and safety of our players first,” Berman said. “These changes will require leadership, accountability, funding and a willingness to embrace this new way of conducting business.”Last month’s report is similar to another released in October, from an investigation led by Sally Q. Yates, a former deputy attorney general, that detailed “systemic” verbal abuse and sexual misconduct by women’s soccer coaches and found that officials in the United States Soccer Federation, the National Women’s Soccer League and throughout American soccer had failed to act over the years on complaints from players.Holly, while coaching Louisville, groped one of his players and sent her inappropriate text messages, according to the investigations. On one occasion, Holly invited a player to his home to watch video of a game, but instead masturbated in front of her and showed her pornography, the investigations found.The investigations also found that Riley, who was fired from the North Carolina Courage in 2021, used his position to try to coerce at least three players into sexual relationships. One player said Riley made sexual advances toward her on several occasions, according to the reports.Dames, who resigned from the Chicago Red Stars in 2021, was accused by the women’s soccer star Christen Press of “verbal and emotional abuse,” the N.W.S.L. report said. The investigation led by Yates also found that he had created a “sexualized team environment” at a Chicago youth club that “crossed the line to sexual relationships in multiple cases, though those relationships may have begun after the age of consent.”The N.W.S.L. report said that several players credibly reported that Burke “verbally and emotionally abused players,” and “used racial slurs, made racially insensitive and offensive jokes.”Riley, Dames, Burke, Holly, Harrington and the Portland Thorns did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.Kelly Hoffman, a lawyer for LaHue, said in an email on Monday night that “Ms. LaHue continues to deny the allegations made against her. Notwithstanding the issues presented in her case, she supports the N.W.S.L. in its efforts towards corrective action.”A spokesman for the Chicago Red Stars said in an email on Monday night that the team was aware of the disciplinary action and that it was “working with the league in a cooperative manner to satisfy the fine.”The investigations led by the N.W.S.L. and Yates highlighted reports in 2021 by The Athletic and The Washington Post that described accusations of sexual and verbal abuse against coaches in the women’s league. Those reports led to public protests by players and the resignations or firings of league executives. Weeks after the reports of alleged sexual and verbal abuse, five coaches in the league were linked to the allegations.As part of Monday’s disciplinary actions, four others teams — OL Reign, Gotham F.C., Racing Louisville F.C. and North Carolina Courage — were fined amounts ranging from $50,000 to $200,000 for failure to act on allegations of misconduct.Six other league officials were told that any future employment with the league would depend on taking part in a training, “acknowledging wrongdoing and accepting personal responsibility for inappropriate conduct” and “demonstrating a sincere commitment to correcting behavior.”Two of the six officials were Vera Pauw, a former coach of the Houston Dash, and Farid Benstiti, a former coach of the OL Reign. The N.W.S.L. report said Pauw and Benstiti, “shamed players for their weight.”In a statement after the N.W.S.L. report was released in December, Pauw said she wanted to “refute every allegation” made against her in the report. Benstiti could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday night.April Rubin More

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      Portland Thorns Win NWSL Championship to End Turbulent Season

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      Portland won its third championship in the league’s 10th season, in a year of upheaval amid an abuse scandal in the sport.WASHINGTON — To end a tumultuous season played under the dark cloud of an abuse scandal, the Portland Thorns beat the Kansas City Current to win the National Women’s Soccer League championship Saturday night, showing resilience as a franchise that has seen so much — and has weathered so much.On a cold, clear night at Audi Field in front of more than 17,000 fans, the Thorns won, 2-0, to clinch their third N.W.S.L. title in the league’s 10th season, dominating the game from the start. Forward Sophia Smith scored the Thorns’ first goal just four minutes in. Portland’s victory ended the championships hopes of the Current, an expansion team that was having a phenomenal year after finishing 2021 in last place.Throughout the years, the Thorns — one of the league’s original teams — have been there to see the league grow in popularity and visibility. This year’s playoff games have had record attendance and Saturday’s championship game was the first one shown on prime-time television.Yet the league still struggles with sponsorship. So much so that league officials used halftime to make a pitch on the broadcast for more support, tying the N.W.S.L.’s efforts to move past the abuse scandal to the pursuit of growing women’s sports.“We know there is a lot of work left to have a safe and sustainable league,” N.W.S.L. Commissioner Jessica Berman said. “As we celebrate this historic moment, we will make our league a better place for players.”Meghann Burke, the executive director of the N.W.S.L. players’ association, added: “We need sponsors and supporters to help make change happen.”Amid the constant tumult within the league, the Thorns have in some ways been an example of what women’s soccer can be, with packed games and loyal fans, only to be at the center of the scandal that has rocked all levels of the women’s game. Their former coach’s sexual misconduct helped spark a leaguewide investigation into systematic abuse.The investigation showed that girls and women get used to being yelled at, demeaned and sexualized at some point in their careers and often stay silent out of fear of getting benched or kicked off a team. That includes women playing at the top levels of the game, and also youth players.Amid everything, the Thorns players brought Portland yet another N.W.S.L. championship, leaping on each other with screams and hugs when the game was done.The team’s owner, Merritt Paulson, was not on hand to celebrate with them. Even if he were at the field, he would have not been invited to join them. In the wake of the sexual abuse report, he stepped down as chief executive of the Thorns, and players have since asked him to sell the team. More

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      The Portland Thorns Become the Face of a Scandal in Women’s Soccer

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      The Portland Thorns were once the pride of U.S. women’s soccer. But after a report said the club shielded a disgraced coach and thwarted an abuse investigation, even the players are demanding a housecleaning.Everybody knew Paul Riley was a problem.The first tangible sign came after the 2014 season, when players on the women’s soccer team he coached, the Portland Thorns, complained about his behavior in an anonymous survey.“We got used to being called dumb, stupid, slow, idiotic, retarded,” one player wrote. Another said, “Being subject to verbal abuse and sexism shouldn’t exist in this league by any coach.”The comments were distributed to executives throughout the National Women’s Soccer League and the United States Soccer Federation, which effectively ran the N.W.S.L. at the time. No one did anything about them, according to a withering report on abuse in women’s soccer. Riley did not respond to messages asking for comment when the report was released on Monday.The indifference of Sunil Gulati, who was the president of U.S. Soccer, demonstrates how the soccer world thought of the Thorns. Gulati told investigators that while the surveys contained important feedback, he did not remember reading the comments from Thorns players.Why not? He suspected, he told investigators, “that he overlooked them because he assumed Portland was squared away.”The report — conducted by Sally Q. Yates, the former deputy U.S. attorney general, at the behest of U.S. Soccer — issued a clarion call for dramatic change throughout women’s soccer, from the professional ranks down to the youth game, and within every organization that oversees the sport.But nowhere is that call louder than in the place that calls itself Soccer City USA, where the Thorns seemingly embody both the best and worst of women’s soccer in America.Becky Sauerbrunn suggested this week that the Thorns’ owner and others should be forced out of the N.W.S.L.Andy Lyons/Getty ImagesMerritt Paulson, the owner of the Thorns, said on Tuesday that he was temporarily “stepping away” from the team’s decision making, as would two other Thorns executives. But Paulson gave no indication that he planned to sell the team, even as one of his most team’s popular players, the defender Becky Sauerbrunn, called for him and others to be forced from the league.“You have failed in your stewardship,” Sauerbrunn said in a conference call with reporters. “And it’s my opinion that every owner and executive and U.S. Soccer official who has repeatedly failed the players, and failed to protect the players, who have hidden behind legalities, and who have not participated fully in these investigations, should be gone.”The N.W.S.L. has been on precarious financial footing since its founding a decade ago, but the Thorns had for years been viewed as a beacon of what women’s professional sports in the United States could be. In the same season in which players reported that Riley called them dumb, the team set a record by drawing more than 19,000 fans to a game. Some of the world’s best players competed for the Thorns in front of the league’s most rabid supporters, and others, including national team stars like Sauerbrunn, Lindsey Horan and Crystal Dunn, found ways to join the team. The Thorns won two league championships, and went to the playoffs almost every season.And while some N.W.S.L. teams were run on shoestring budgets, with players provided substandard housing and inadequate training facilities, the Thorns always presented themselves as a first-class operation, professional in every sense of the word.As his two Oregon teams — Paulson also owns a men’s team, the Portland Timbers of Major League Soccer — won games and titles and packed Providence Park, Paulson cultivated a reputation as a fan- and media-friendly populist, the kind of owner who would banter on Twitter and shake hands on game day. That image, and his team’s commercial and on-field successes, made him a serious player in American soccer — and one with powerful supporters.The responses of Merritt Paulson and the Thorns to investigations into abuse are also under the microscope.Diego Diaz/Icon Sportswire, via Getty ImagesEven after some revelations about the Thorns’s inaction with Riley, and after the Timbers were fined by M.L.S. for failing to disclose accusations of domestic violence against a player, Paulson was praised by Don Garber, the commissioner of M.L.S. and a U.S. Soccer board member.“I have enormous faith and confidence in Merritt Paulson, who’s built from scratch one of the great sports teams, in any sport, in our country, if not throughout North America,” Garber said in February. “I know that he’s very passionate about his teams, both the Portland Timbers and the Portland Thorns, and is going to cooperate in anything that is being reviewed.”Garber and the M.L.S. did not respond to a request for comment.That faith and confidence may be shattered by allegations that the Thorns ignored complaints of sexual and verbal abuse against Riley, covered for him despite firing him for his behavior and encouraged his moves to new teams, and then worked to thwart Yates’s investigators.For a year, Thorns fans have been torn about how to straddle the line between supporting the players on a team run by people they believe are failing them, with some still attending games but boycotting merchandise and concessions stands, and others simply not going.“Many friends and volunteering colleagues stopped attending games long ago,” said Rachel Greenough, 39, who is a member of the Rose City Riveters, a Thorns supporters group that has called for Paulson to sell. “They felt like they could not be in that stadium because it felt like an emotional burden they didn’t want to take on, or they didn’t want to give money to the organization. I totally understand that.”The team’s inaction over player complaints about Riley, and the steps several Thorns executives — including Paulson — took to help him find another N.W.S.L. job, cannot be blamed on ignorance. As the report makes clear, the team knew everything.The Thorns, in fact, dismissed Riley after the 2015 season, days after a player, Meleana Shim, made a formal complaint to the team that Riley had sexually harassed her, presided over a toxic workplace and coerced her and another player to kiss in front of him.That decision was made, however, only after years of complaints. Riley’s sexual misconduct was an “open secret” by then — known by players, a coach, an owner and an assistant general manager for another team, according to the report. Players complained in surveys. The Thorns’ athletic trainer told her superiors that Riley went against medical recommendations and endangered players. Riley also had multiple sexual relationships with players throughout his career as a coach.Altogether, the report painted a picture of a coach who crossed every line imaginable and whose conduct was reported to those in charge, and yet his contract was only terminated after his team missed the playoffs for the first time. The Thorns then actively assisted Riley with getting another job in the N.W.S.L., with the Western New York Flash.The Thorns did not say publicly that Riley’s contract had been terminated after a formal complaint and a human resources investigation that substantiated many of the complaints. They publicly wished him well. When a Flash executive spoke to Gavin Wilkinson, then the Thorns general manager, Wilkinson told him Riley was “put in a bad position by the player” and that Wilkinson “would hire him in a heartbeat.” Reached by phone, Wilkinson declined to comment.Riley speaking to the media after a Thorns practice in 2014.Randy L. Rasmussen/The Oregonian, via Associated PressRiley coached six more seasons on the strength of that recommendation.In the year since the stories of Shim and Sinead Farrelly, a former Thorns player who said she was coerced into a sexual relationship with Riley, were made public, leading to his firing by the North Carolina Courage, immense scrutiny has been focused on the Thorns front office.Besides endorsing Riley, Wilkinson jokingly called a player a demeaning name and was critical of another’s sexuality, according to what players told investigators. Wilkinson denied both claims, but he was placed on administrative leave by the Thorns last October. Three months later he was reinstated.This summer The Oregonian reported on “an atmosphere of disrespect and intimidation toward women” at the Thorns cultivated by Mike Golub, the team president. Cindy Parlow Cone, the president of U.S. Soccer and a former national team player, told investigators that while she was coaching the Thorns in 2013, Golub asked her, “What’s on your bucket list besides sleeping with me?”When Cone informed Paulson, the Thorns owner, about the incident months later, he told Cone that he wished she had told him about it when it occurred. According to Paulson, Golub is currently undergoing “remediation” and was not allowed to speak to investigators for the report. Golub did not respond to messages seeking comment.Both Golub and Wilkinson were “relieved of their duties” by the Thorns on Wednesday. The responses by Paulson and the Thorns to investigations into abuse are also under the microscope. Last year Paulson pledged transparency and to cooperate with any and all investigations. But according to the Yates report, he and the team did anything but that.“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 said.There could be more revelations to come, as a joint investigation into abuse by the N.W.S.L. and its players’ association is expected to be completed this year. The Thorns could win their third championship later this month, but some players, at least, would not see it simply as another success by the sport’s best-run team.“The jerseys that we’re wearing — it’s hard to be happy in them,” said Dunn on Wednesday. “It’s hard to find joy in wearing it.”Andrew Das More

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      Portland Thorns Owner Steps Aside as U.S. Soccer Stars Call for Change

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      Becky Sauerbrunn said any official found to have failed to protect players “should be gone.” As she spoke, the owner of her club, the Portland Thorns, said he would leave the team temporarily.LONDON — The captain of the world champion United States women’s national soccer team said Tuesday that any owner or executive implicated in a damning report on abuse in women’s soccer “should be gone” from the sport. That group of people, the captain, Becky Sauerbrunn, made clear, includes the owner and several top executives of her own club team, the Portland Thorns.“You have failed in your stewardship,” Sauerbrunn said of soccer leaders and executives whose behavior was detailed in a scathing report, released Monday, that revealed years of abuse in American women’s soccer. “And it’s my opinion that every owner and executive and U.S. Soccer official who has repeatedly failed the players, and failed to protect the players, who have hidden behind legalities, and who have not participated fully in these investigations, should be gone.”As she was speaking, the Thorns’ owner, Merritt Paulson, released a statement in which he said he was “removing myself effective today” from the team’s decision-making. But Paulson gave no indication that he planned to sell the team in Portland, Ore., a stance that, for the moment, put him directly at odds with Sauerbrunn, one of his club’s most decorated and popular players.Asked to clarify if her remarks included Paulson, Sauerbrunn, citing specific accusations against the owner and the Thorns but not speaking his name, left little doubt that Paulson was among the targets of her comments.“It includes everyone that has continued to fail the players time and time again,” she said of those who should be ostracized from soccer.Paulson and at least two team executives were accused in a report compiled by the former Justice Department official Sally Q. Yates of hiding their knowledge of abuse by a former Thorns coach; of dismissing the claims of a player who raised such concerns; and of staying silent while the coach moved from team to team in the National Women’s Soccer League.Merritt Paulson, the owner of the Portland Thorns, said he would step aside from his duties while the National Women’s Soccer League and its players’ union investigate widespread claims of abuse.Troy Wayrynen/USA TODAY Sports via ReutersSauerbrunn and her teammate Alana Cook, who spoke on the same call on Tuesday evening, were unsparing in their view that strong action, including the forced sale of teams and the firing of officials known to have hidden or abetted the abuse of women, was overdue.“I think it’s time,” Sauerbrunn said, “for those that are in authority and leadership positions to start holding each other accountable, and asking for the change that needs to happen.”Cook, like Sauerbrunn, said that with players having come forward to reveal and document years of abuse, the responsibility to remove problematic coaches, executives and owners lay with the sport’s leadership.“For so long it’s been on the players to speak out,” Cook said. “It shouldn’t be on us anymore.”Sauerbrunn and Cook spoke in London, where the United States will play the European champion England in an exhibition game Friday night. Both players, and their coach, Vlatko Andonovski, said the team was reeling from the revelations in the Yates report, and struggling to focus on Friday’s game.“The players are not doing well,” Sauerbrunn said. “We are horrified and heartbroken and frustrated and exhausted and really, really angry.”Andonovski said that he and his staff were respecting that each player was processing the report differently, and that all have been given room to do that. Allowances have been made, he said, for players to skip meetings, training sessions and even Friday’s game.Paulson’s statement was his first public comment since the release of the report. He said in the statement that two other top Thorns executives whose personal and professional behavior was criticized in the report, the president of soccer Gavin Wilkinson and the team’s president of business Mike Golub, would also step aside while a separate investigation is conducted by the N.W.S.L. and its players’ union.But Paulson gave no indication that he planned to sell the team, and Sauerbrunn and Cook along with other players quickly signaled that stopping short of a complete exit would be inadequate.“I think that a lot of trust has been broken,” Sauerbrunn said. She added, “At the end of the day, if people continue to fail the players, and they don’t comply with anything that gets asked of them in these reports and gets implemented in these reports, they need to be gone gone.” More

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      Abuse in Women’s Soccer Left Players With Nowhere To Turn

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      A report on dysfunction in women’s soccer showed that abuse of players in the National Women’s Soccer League was “an open secret.” Players had nowhere to turn.The New York Times is investigating abuses in soccer. Share your experiences with us in the form at the end of this article.The women’s professional soccer players felt as if they were caught in a vise.They could speak up and tell the leaders of the National Women’s Soccer League about coaches who abused their authority and even coerced players into sex — and get ignored.Or silently endure abuse so as not to damage a nascent league and harm the fight for equality on the pitch and beyond.There seemed to be no way out.Players would raise concerns, but the teams, the league and the United States Soccer Federation would either minimize them, blame players for trying to harm the league, or ignore the stories altogether.In 2015, a player decided she needed to tell her story of abuse at the hands of one of the most prominent coaches in the game. But she found the prospect so frightening — and potentially damaging to her career — that it took her six years to come forward. “I just wanted to not rock the boat,” she told investigators.Her approach was “Just do what they expected me to do so I could continue” playing, she said.That quote distills a dynamic at the heart of a lengthy, stomach-churning report produced Monday by Sally Q. Yates, the former deputy U.S. attorney general hired to investigate claims of misconduct and abuse of N.W.S.L. players. Yates found a troubling history of abuse in the sport, from youth leagues to the professional ranks. The voices of powerful female athletes were either cast aside or diminished. Too often they felt they had nowhere to turn. Coaches controlled careers and held nearly unfettered sway.One of those accused coaches, Paul Riley, was so highly thought of that he’d once been a candidate to lead the U.S. women’s national team.In nearly 300 pages, the report details behavior to which we are in danger of becoming inured, given the number of similar stories emerging in sports. The specifics should sicken anyone who cares about human rights, the struggle for women’s equality and the place sports should have in a healthy society.For example, the report notes that Riley’s controlling and sexually aggressive behavior was considered by many to be an “open secret” in the league. Riley did not respond to calls asking for comment when the report was released.Paul Riley on the field during a match between the Portland Thorns and North Carolina Courage. His mistreatment of players was “an open secret,” according to an investigative report.Adam Lapierre/The Oregonian, via Associated Press“Witnesses from each part of the professional landscape — players, a coach, an owner, an assistant general manager — recalled hearing stories about his ‘relationships’ with specific players, or just generally that Riley ‘sleeps with his players,’” the report said.Yet little was done.Of course many players kept quiet. It is hard to go against authority and power when you are just trying to survive and keep playing the game you love.This whole ugly story is about power.Who has it, and who does not. Who wields it with wisdom. Who can’t seem to help using it to dehumanize, belittle, abuse, cross every boundary of decency.It’s about the awful treatment female athletes — even some of the best in the world — must endure as they push for viability and respect.A single sentence from early in the report gives a startling summary and sets an ominous tone for all that is to come:“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.”You need read only a few pages to realize what the N.W.S.L. has been for years: a league with a culture that left players with almost no power. Stuck at the bottom, desperate to earn a living wage and advance their sport, many were easily preyed upon and exploited.The N.W.S.L. became a perfect hunting ground for abusers.As Yates tells it, the league began in the shadow of a gold medal performance by the United States women in the London Olympics of 2012. It was put together on a shoestring budget and started quickly to take advantage of a surge in the public interest.Safeguarding the athletes was never paramount. The league had no anti-harassment policy, anti-retaliation policy or anti-fraternization policy.Everyone knew what was at stake. The N.W.S.L.’s predecessor league had failed amid legal battles with a team owner who had reportedly bullied and threatened players, according to the report.As a society, we’ve done a terrible job supporting women’s sports, and the way the N.W.S.L. must scrape through to survive is the fruit of that neglect. Throughout its history, many players in the league have made roughly the same as frontline McDonald’s or Walmart workers — minimum salaries stood at $22,000 a year until a recent change increased the amount to $35,000. Players were left vulnerable in practically every way.Cue the coaches whose abuse reads like a horror show. Just one example: Christy Holly, formerly of Racing Louisville F.C.According to the report, Holly invited a player to his home to review game film. He ended up showing the player pornography and masturbating in front of her. On another occasion, the report says, he lured her to his home again on the pretext of watching game footage. This time he groped the player’s genitals and breasts each time the film showed she made a mistake. Reached by a reporter, Holly declined to comment.Christy Holly, left, coaching during a Racing Louisville F.C. game against the Chicago Red Stars in 2021.Tim Nwachukwu/Getty ImagesCue the ownership and league administration that coddled such behavior. Riley was eventually fired for his habit of coercing players into sex, according to the report. Yet the Thorns failed to disclose to the league or the public exactly why he was terminated.And when the Western New York Flash subsequently hired Riley, the report says, the Thorns owner Merritt Paulson congratulated the Flash’s president. “I have a lot of affection for him,” Paulson said of Riley, the report notes.One of the most prominent team owners speaking warmly about a coach like Paul Riley is obscene. Paulson and other senior leaders of the team on Tuesday removed themselves from team operations while the league and the players union investigate.What a horrific mess. We can only hope the league will live up to its promises to reform. Hiring a new commissioner appears to be helping. Calling for and publishing the Yates report is a good first step in the league’s self-examination.Still, as recently as the spring of 2021, according to the report, the league received four complaints about Riley. The report states that it largely ignored the complaints, and indeed, that then-Commissioner Lisa Baird was “actively trying to keep Riley from resigning over his anger about the postseason schedule.”The N.W.S.L lost its moral compass and protected those who held all the power. It must start living up to its professed values and treating its talented athletes like they matter. Right now, until real change happens, they don’t.The Times has reported extensively about abuse in sports and now wants to hear stories from current or former soccer players, at any level, who endured verbal, emotional or physical abuse at the hands of a coach or sports administrator. We won’t publish any part of your submission without contacting you first. If you prefer to share your story anonymously, please visit our confidential tips page.Were you a soccer player, or the parent or guardian of a soccer player, who was abused by a coach? Share your story. More

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      Takeaways From the Report on Abuse in Women’s Soccer

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      The report focused on three coaches who have been accused of abuse and criticized the inaction of leaders at U.S. Soccer and the National Women’s Soccer League.A report published Monday detailed “systemic” verbal abuse and sexual misconduct by coaches at the highest levels of women’s soccer in the United States, and found that leaders in the United States Soccer Federation, the National Women’s Soccer League and throughout American soccer had failed to act over the years on reports from players.The report was commissioned by U.S. Soccer, which asked Sally Q. Yates, a former U.S. deputy attorney general, and the law firm King & Spalding to lead an investigation after news media reports documented accusations of sexual and verbal abuse against N.W.S.L. coaches.The report focuses on three coaches — Christy Holly, Paul Riley and Rory Dames — highlighting a history of sexual misconduct allegations against them and executives’ failure to investigate and act on the accusations. It also warned that girls face abuse in youth soccer.Riley and Dames did not respond to requests for comment Monday, and Holly declined to comment. Holly spoke with investigators and denied some, but not all, of the claims made against him. Through his lawyer, Dames declined to speak with investigators. Riley agreed to provide written responses but never did.Here are six takeaways from the report:Christy HollyHolly was fired as the coach of Racing Louisville F.C. last year, during the team’s inaugural season, with minimal public explanation from the team. While accusations against Riley and Dames had been detailed in news media reports, the accusations against Holly were not publicly known.Christy Holly, left, was coach of Racing Louisville F.C.Getty ImagesThe report found that Holly’s misconduct while coaching Louisville included sexual contact, inappropriate text messages, abuse of power and retaliation. In one instance, Holly invited a player to his home to watch game film but instead masturbated in front of her and showed her pornography. While watching game film with the player on a separate occasion, Holly groped the player’s breasts and genitals whenever the film showed she had made a mistake.Holly also sent the player nude pictures of himself and asked her to send sexual pictures of herself to him, according to the report. The player said that she felt “guilted” and “forced” to send photos. The player told investigators that “Holly constantly reminded her to ‘loosen up,’ telling her that having ‘fun’ with him would improve her performance on the field.”Paul RileyAnother narrative in the report centers on Paul Riley, who was fired from the North Carolina Courage last year. The report found that Riley had “leveraged his position” to coerce at least three players into sexual relationships.“Paul Riley’s abuse was prolonged and wide-ranging,” the report said. “It spanned multiple leagues, teams and players. It included emotional misconduct, abuse of power and sexual misconduct.”Paul Riley was coach of the North Carolina Courage.Getty ImagesOne player said Riley made sexual advances toward her on several occasions. In one instance, the player said, Riley asked her to watch game film in his hotel room. When the player arrived at his room, she said, Riley answered the door wearing only underwear and told her to get on the bed. The player said she left once she realized that there was no game film on the television.“I just didn’t feel safe,” the player said. “I didn’t enjoy playing. It was a bad situation.”Rory DamesThe report also details accusations against Rory Dames, who resigned from the Chicago Red Stars last year and was also coach of the Chicago Eclipse Select youth soccer team. It found that he created a “sexualized team environment” at the youth club that “crossed the line to sexual relationships in multiple cases, though those relationships may have begun after the age of consent.” It also said that he verbally abused his players and that he joked about the age of consent for sexual activity.Rory Dames was coach of the Chicago Red Stars.Getty ImagesOne player who played for Dames on the Eclipse team said that on one occasion, Dames offered her a ride home from practice and asked her questions about sex. The player said that Dames “wouldn’t take me home until I answered the questions.”The report also said that it was not uncommon for Dames to spend time alone with girls from youth teams without another adult present, including in their childhood bedrooms.Lack of oversightThe report also detailed how allegations of abuse or misconduct were often not fully investigated. When they were, the accused coaches later had opportunities to coach elsewhere. The report found that several investigations across the league “failed to successfully root out misconduct.”After the 2015 N.W.S.L. season, one player reported Riley’s sexual misconduct to the Portland Thorns, where he was then coaching, and the league. The Thorns conducted an investigation that lasted one week, and Riley was promptly terminated from the team. But the Thorns did not inform their players, other teams or the public about the reason for Riley’s termination. Riley was later hired by another women’s league team.The report said that several players tried to raise concerns about Dames over the years, including in 2014, 2015 and 2018. A report by the United States Women’s National Team Players Association in 2018 prompted Lydia Wahlke, U.S. Soccer’s chief legal officer, to hire outside counsel to investigate Dames. By October 2018, the investigation had found that Dames created “a cycle of emotional abuse and manipulation” at the Chicago Red Stars. But Wahlke did not share the findings with the Red Stars or the N.W.S.L.One player said she had realized that reporting Dames’s conduct “was a lost cause.”Youth soccerThe investigation did not directly examine youth soccer in the United States, but the report found several instances of verbal and sexual abuse of players.“The culture of tolerating verbal abuse of players goes beyond the N.W.S.L.,” the report said. “Players also told us that their experiences of verbal abuse and blurred relationships with coaches in youth soccer impacted their ability to discern what was out of bounds in the N.W.S.L.”One example cited in the report details an anonymous complaint that Riley had created an “unsafe environment” in his F.C. Fury Development Academy girls’ program and that a coach in the program had “inappropriately touched a minor player.” The person making the complaint said that Riley had not reported the incident and expressed “fear of reprisal from Riley for speaking out,” adding that Riley is “known to be vindictive to anyone who crossed him.”RecommendationsAmong its recommendations, the report said that teams should be required to disclose coaches’ misconduct to their leagues to ensure that the coaches cannot move freely from one team to another, and that the N.W.S.L. should be required to meaningfully vet its coaches and investigate allegations of misconduct.The report also recommended that the N.W.S.L. conduct an annual training for players and coaches on issues of misconduct and harassment, and that teams designate an individual responsible for player safety.The report also advised U.S. Soccer to examine whether it should institute other measures in youth soccer to protect young players. More

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      Report Details ‘Systemic’ Abuse of Players in Women’s Soccer

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      A yearlong investigation found U.S. Soccer executives, N.W.S.L. owners and coaches at all levels of American soccer had turned a blind eye toward years of reports of abuse from players.One coach called in a player to review game film and showed her pornography instead. Another was notorious at the highest levels of women’s soccer for alternately berating his players and then quizzing them about their sex lives.A third coach coerced multiple players into sexual relationships, behavior that one top team found so disturbing that it fired him. But when he was hired by a rival team only a few months later, the original club, which had documented his behavior in an internal investigation, said nothing. Instead, it publicly wished him well in his new post.Those details and others fill a highly anticipated investigative report into abuse in women’s soccer that found sexual misconduct, verbal abuse and emotional abuse by coaches in the game’s top tier, the National Women’s Soccer League, and issued warnings that girls face abuse in youth soccer as well.The report was published Monday, a year after players outraged by what they saw as a culture of abuse in their sport demanded changes by refusing to take the field. It found that leaders of the N.W.S.L. and the United States Soccer Federation — the governing body of the sport in America — as well as owners, executives and coaches at all levels failed to act on years of voluminous and persistent reports of abuse by coaches.All were more concerned about being sued by coaches or about the teetering finances of women’s professional soccer than player welfare, according to the report, creating a system in which abusive and predatory coaches were able to move freely from team to team at the top levels of women’s soccer.“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,” Sally Q. Yates, the lead investigator, wrote in the report’s executive summary. “Abuse in the N.W.S.L. 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.”Read the Report on Abuse in Women’s SoccerAn investigative report commissioned by the United States Soccer Federation found sexual misconduct, verbal abuse and emotional abuse by coaches in the National Women’s Soccer League. It also issued warning signs that girls face abuse in youth soccer as well.Read Document 319 pagesLast year, U.S. Soccer commissioned Yates, a former deputy attorney general, and the law firm King & Spalding to look into the sport after reports in The Athletic and The Washington Post detailed accusations of sexual and verbal abuse against coaches in the women’s league. After the news media reports, and after games were postponed as furious players protested publicly, league executives resigned and were fired. Within weeks, half of the 10-team league’s coaches had been linked to allegations of abuse, and some of the world’s top players had recounted their own stories of mistreatment.Cindy Parlow Cone, the U.S. Soccer president and a former member of the national team, called the findings “devastating and infuriating.” Cone said there are “systemic failures within soccer that must be corrected,” and that the federation would immediately implement a number of the report’s recommendations.A National Women’s Soccer League game between Gotham F.C. and the Washington Spirit last October.Monique Jaques for The New York TimesThe report made a lengthy list of recommendations that it said should be adopted by U.S. Soccer, and in some cases the women’s league, including making a public list of individuals suspended or barred by U.S. Soccer, meaningfully vetting coaches when licensing them, requiring investigations into accusations of abuse, making clear policies and rules around acceptable behavior and conduct, and hiring player safety officers, among other requirements.The report also raises the question of whether some team owners should be disciplined or forced to sell their teams, as it recommended the league “determine whether disciplinary action is appropriate for any of these owners or team executives.”Even with so much of the worst abuse publicly known, the Yates report is stunning in how meticulously it details how many powerful soccer officials were told about abuse and how little they did to investigate or stop it. Among those whose inaction is detailed are a former U.S. Soccer president; the organization’s former chief executive and women’s national team coach; and the leadership of the Portland Thorns, one of the league’s most popular and best-supported teams.“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,” Yates wrote. She added that “abusive coaches moved from team to team, laundered by press releases thanking them for their service,” while those with knowledge of their misconduct stayed silent.In a statement, the women’s league said in the report, and an investigation it is undertaking with the players’ union, “will be critical to informing and implementing systemic reform and ensuring that the N.W.S.L. is a league where players are supported, on and off the pitch.” The players’ union said in a statement that players who had spoken to investigators “have shown profound courage and bravery, and we stand with them.”The national team players association released a statement saying it was “dismayed” that some clubs and U.S. Soccer staff “impeded the investigation,” and urged U.S. Soccer to implement the report’s recommendations. National team players largely did not respond publicly to the report, as they were on a plane to London for a match against England as the report was released.The report said the sport does little to train athletes and coaches about harassment, retaliation and fraternization. It noted that “overwhelming” numbers of players, coaches and U.S. Soccer staff members remarked that “women players are conditioned to accept and respond to abusive coaching behaviors as youth players.”From left, Rory Dames, Christy Holly and Paul Riley.Getty ImagesWhile the report details complaints made about several coaches, it focuses its narrative on three: Paul Riley, Rory Dames and Christy Holly. The accusations against Riley, who last coached the North Carolina Courage, and Dames, who coached the Chicago Red Stars, have been well documented in news media reports. The accusations against Holly, who was abruptly dismissed as coach of Racing Louisville F.C. last year with little explanation, have not been aired publicly before.Holly spoke with investigators and denied some, but not all, of the claims made against him. Through his lawyer, Dames declined to speak with investigators. Riley agreed to provide written responses but never did.Riley and Dames did not respond to requests for comment Monday. Holly declined to comment.Holly sexually coerced a player, according to the report, by inviting her to his home for what he said was a session to watch game film. Instead, he showed the player pornography and masturbated in front of her. Another time, according to the report, after calling in the player again under the pretense of watching game film, Holly groped the player’s genitals and breasts each time the film showed she made a mistake.While coaching in the women’s league years earlier, the report also found, Holly drew complaints of verbal abuse and mistreatment and had a relationship with a player “that caused a toxic team environment.” Yet little vetting of his past occurred as he moved from job to job.The report found that Riley “leveraged his position” as a coach to coerce at least three players into sexual relationships while working previously in a different women’s soccer league, and it said that investigators received “credible reports of sexual misconduct with other players” that were not detailed in the final report.Dames, a longtime youth soccer coach, fostered a “sexualized team environment” that included speaking to youth players about their sex lives, according to the report. That environment “crossed the line to sexual relationships” in multiple cases, which the report says “may have begun after the age of consent.” Dames also screamed at and belittled players, and joked about the age of consent for sexual activity.Portland Thorns fans lit a smoke bomb last November as part of a protest of the sexual misconduct scandal in the league.Steve Dykes/Getty ImagesIn the cases of all three coaches, the report found, the women’s league and U.S. Soccer officials, as well as individual team owners and executives, were repeatedly made aware of complaints of inappropriate behavior but largely did nothing to address them or prevent them from occurring elsewhere.Sexual misconduct allegations were brought against Riley each year from 2015 to 2021, for example, and an anonymous player survey in 2014 also identified Riley, then coaching the Portland Thorns, as verbally abusive and sexist. The survey results were seen by U.S. Soccer and league officials, and feedback was distributed to the Thorns owner Merritt Paulson.In 2015, after the Thorns conducted an investigation, Riley was terminated. But the team said publicly that it had chosen not to extend his contract, and Riley was not disciplined. When he was hired by another team months later, no one from the league or the federation — which at the time effectively ran and bankrolled the league — provided his new team with any of the complaints or information used to substantiate his termination by the Thorns.Players also complained about Dames for years, beginning in 2014, when they told Sunil Gulati, then the U.S. Soccer president, and Jill Ellis, then the women’s national team head coach, that Dames had created a hostile work environment with the Chicago Red Stars, according to the report. Dames was also called abusive by his players in anonymous surveys, and in 2018 he was investigated after another prominent player complained. Yet while a U.S. Soccer investigation into that case substantiated many of the complaints, the report was not distributed throughout the organization or to the league or the Red Stars, and Dames was not disciplined.Jeff Plush at a news conference in 2017.Craig Barritt/Getty Images for LifetimeIn addition to detailing the behavior of several prominent coaches and the inaction of others, the report also took note of individuals and organizations who were not forthcoming or who actively tried to stymie the investigation — even as some publicly said they were cooperating.Jeff Plush, who was the commissioner of the women’s league from 2015 and 2017 and is now the head of U.S.A. Curling, did not respond to the investigators, the report said. Dan Flynn, the retired U.S. Soccer chief executive, responded only to written questions and would not sit for an interview.The Thorns, meanwhile, “interfered with our access to relevant witnesses and raised specious legal arguments” to impede the investigation, according to the report. Racing Louisville F.C. declined to provide documents about Holly’s tenure, and told investigators that current and former employees could not speak about him because of nondisclosure and non-disparagement agreements the team had signed with Holly when he was fired.The Chicago Red Stars also delayed production of documents for months.Rectifying the problems identified in the report will be difficult. Soccer in the United States is run by a number of organizations — federations, professional leagues, youth clubs and state soccer organizations — that have overlapping authority, a tangled web that the report suggested may have played a role in reports of abusive behavior going unheeded.And the revelations may not be over. A separate joint investigation by the women’s league and its players association has not been completed, and the report also did not investigate youth soccer, even as it made clear that the investigators believe abuse is prevalent there as well.“The roots of abuse in women’s soccer run deep and will not be eliminated through reform in the N.W.S.L. alone,” investigators wrote. More

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      6 Takeaways From the Report on Sexual Misconduct in Women’s Soccer

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      The report focused on three coaches who have been accused of abuse and the lack of action by leaders at U.S. Soccer and the National Women’s Soccer League.A report published Monday detailed “systemic” verbal abuse and sexual misconduct by coaches at the highest levels of women’s soccer in the United States, and found that leaders in the United States Soccer Federation, the National Women’s Soccer League and throughout American soccer had failed to act over the years on reports from players.The report was commissioned by U.S. Soccer, which asked Sally Q. Yates, a former U.S. deputy attorney general, and the law firm King & Spalding to lead an investigation after news media reports documented accusations of sexual and verbal abuse against N.W.S.L. coaches.The report focuses on three coaches — Christy Holly, Paul Riley and Rory Dames — highlighting a history of sexual misconduct allegations against them and executives’ failure to investigate and act on the accusations. It also warned that girls face abuse in youth soccer.Riley and Dames did not respond to requests for comment Monday, and Holly declined to comment. Holly spoke with investigators and denied some, but not all, of the claims made against him. Through his lawyer, Dames declined to speak with investigators. Riley agreed to provide written responses but never did.Here are six takeaways from the report:Christy HollyHolly was fired as the coach of Racing Louisville F.C. last year, during the team’s inaugural season, with minimal public explanation from the team. While accusations against Riley and Dames had been detailed in news media reports, the accusations against Holly were not publicly known.Christy Holly, left, was coach of Racing Louisville F.C.Getty ImagesThe report found that Holly’s misconduct while coaching Louisville included sexual contact, inappropriate text messages, abuse of power and retaliation. In one instance, Holly invited a player to his home to watch game film but instead masturbated in front of her and showed her pornography. While watching game film with the player on a separate occasion, Holly groped the player’s breasts and genitals whenever the film showed she had made a mistake.Holly also sent the player nude pictures of himself and asked her to send sexual pictures of herself to him, according to the report. The player said that she felt “guilted” and “forced” to send photos. The player told investigators that “Holly constantly reminded her to ‘loosen up,’ telling her that having ‘fun’ with him would improve her performance on the field.”Paul RileyAnother narrative in the report centers on Paul Riley, who was fired from the North Carolina Courage last year. The report found that Riley had “leveraged his position” to coerce at least three players into sexual relationships.“Paul Riley’s abuse was prolonged and wide-ranging,” the report said. “It spanned multiple leagues, teams and players. It included emotional misconduct, abuse of power and sexual misconduct.”Paul Riley was coach of the North Carolina Courage.Getty ImagesOne player said Riley made sexual advances toward her on several occasions. In one instance, the player said, Riley asked her to watch game film in his hotel room. When the player arrived at his room, she said, Riley answered the door wearing only underwear and told her to get on the bed. The player said she left once she realized that there was no game film on the television.“I just didn’t feel safe,” the player said. “I didn’t enjoy playing. It was a bad situation.”Rory DamesThe report also details accusations against Rory Dames, who resigned from the Chicago Red Stars last year and was also coach of the Chicago Eclipse Select youth soccer team. It found that he created a “sexualized team environment” at the youth club that “crossed the line to sexual relationships in multiple cases, though those relationships may have begun after the age of consent.” It also said that he verbally abused his players and that he joked about the age of consent for sexual activity.Rory Dames was coach of the Chicago Red Stars.Getty ImagesOne player who played for Dames on the Eclipse team said that on one occasion, Dames offered her a ride home from practice and asked her questions about sex. The player said that Dames “wouldn’t take me home until I answered the questions.”The report also said that it was not uncommon for Dames to spend time alone with girls from youth teams without another adult present, including in their childhood bedrooms.Lack of oversightThe report also detailed how allegations of abuse or misconduct were often not fully investigated. When they were, the accused coaches later had opportunities to coach elsewhere. The report found that several investigations across the league “failed to successfully root out misconduct.”After the 2015 N.W.S.L. season, one player reported Riley’s sexual misconduct to the Portland Thorns, where he was then coaching, and the league. The Thorns conducted an investigation that lasted one week, and Riley was promptly terminated from the team. But the Thorns did not inform their players, other teams or the public about the reason for Riley’s termination. Riley was later hired by another women’s league team.The report said that several players tried to raise concerns about Dames over the years, including in 2014, 2015 and 2018. A report by the United States Women’s National Team Players Association in 2018 prompted Lydia Wahlke, U.S. Soccer’s chief legal officer, to hire outside counsel to investigate Dames. By October 2018, the investigation had found that Dames created “a cycle of emotional abuse and manipulation” at the Chicago Red Stars. But Wahlke did not share the findings with the Red Stars or the N.W.S.L.One player said she had realized that reporting Dames’s conduct “was a lost cause.”Youth soccerThe investigation did not directly examine youth soccer in the United States, but the report found several instances of verbal and sexual abuse of players.“The culture of tolerating verbal abuse of players goes beyond the N.W.S.L.,” the report said. “Players also told us that their experiences of verbal abuse and blurred relationships with coaches in youth soccer impacted their ability to discern what was out of bounds in the N.W.S.L.”One example cited in the report details an anonymous complaint that Riley had created an “unsafe environment” in his F.C. Fury Development Academy girls’ program and that a coach in the program had “inappropriately touched a minor player.” The person making the complaint said that Riley had not reported the incident and expressed “fear of reprisal from Riley for speaking out,” adding that Riley is “known to be vindictive to anyone who crossed him.”RecommendationsAmong its recommendations, the report said that teams should be required to disclose coaches’ misconduct to their leagues to ensure that the coaches cannot move freely from one team to another, and that the N.W.S.L. should be required to meaningfully vet its coaches and investigate allegations of misconduct.The report also recommended that the N.W.S.L. conduct an annual training for players and coaches on issues of misconduct and harassment, and that teams designate an individual responsible for player safety.The report also advised U.S. Soccer to examine whether it should institute other measures in youth soccer to protect young players. More

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      N.W.S.L. Players Protest Abuse Scandal as League Returns to Field

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      In their first matches since confronting the accusations that have shaken their league, women’s soccer players stopped play to make a point.In North Carolina, soccer players from both teams sprinted to midfield to be part of a silent protest of the abuse scandal that has shaken their league. In Portland, Ore., the home team’s players took the field in shirts bearing the slogan “No More Silence” and demanded — and received — the suspension of a prominent team executive.And at Carli Lloyd’s homecoming game just outside Philadelphia, the retiring United States national team star set aside the celebrations of her long career to note a moment that, she said, was much bigger than herself.“This is something you cannot ignore,” Lloyd said after her Gotham F.C. team played the Washington Spirit to a scoreless draw in Chester, Pa.Wednesday night marked the first tentative steps back onto the field for the National Women’s Soccer League only days after it brought its entire operation to a halt as it confronted accusations of coaches who abused players, team executives who did not stop it, and a league that failed to protect its most valuable assets: its athletes.The Gotham-Washington game was one of three played in the league on Wednesday, the first night of action since the league canceled its entire schedule over the weekend and announced that its commissioner, Lisa Baird, had resigned.In Cary, N.C., the North Carolina Courage, whose coach was fired last week after he was accused of sexual coercion by at least two former players, beat Racing Louisville, which fired its coach in August “for cause” after a separate case of misconduct. And in Oregon, the Portland Thorns’ players released a list of demands before their game against the Houston Dash that included the immediate suspension of their own team’s general manager.In all three matches, the teams stopped play in the sixth minute and players stood arm in arm at midfield — a symbolic pause, they said, that represented the six years it took for a group of former colleagues who had filed abuse complaints to be heard. The protests brought together national team stars like Lloyd, Lindsey Horan and Crystal Dunn, dozens of lesser known pros who make up the league’s rank and file and, in Portland at least, even the match officials.For Lloyd, who acknowledged she has been adept at blocking out the crowds, the noises, the off-the-field distractions, this was a night to focus on the collective over the individual.“This is a huge wake-up call,” she said.Her statement and other brief comments by players around the league made direct references to Sinead Farrelly and Mana Shim, the two N.W.S.L. players whose searing accusations of being sexually abused by Paul Riley, who coached the North Carolina Courage to league championships in 2018 and 2019, ignited the recent reckoning in the sport.Many of soccer’s biggest and most outspoken stars, like Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan, have weighed in over the last week, and pointedly criticized the league, its officials and even their own teams for knowing about complaints and failing to protect the players.But Lloyd has long been much more reticent to speak out on social issues. So hearing her speak so candidly, and on a night arranged to celebrate her personally, underscored the shared sense of anger and solidarity roiling the N.W.S.L.Fans in Chester, Pa., and other cities showed their support for the players through signs and standing ovations.Charles Fox/The Philadelphia Inquirer, via Associated Press“This is a reset,” Lloyd said in her postgame news conference, and an opportunity “to have policies in place to vet ownership” and coaches. And after “one of the worst weeks this league has ever seen,” she added, “I’m really proud of everyone, even on the Spirit, coming out playing despite what’s been going on.”Before the game, the Gotham players and staff left a handwritten note in the locker room of the Washington Spirit. The note read, “To our friends at the Spirit. Off the field we support you. On the field let’s play. Sending our love to you.”The anger of frustration of players, though, was evident on an emotional night. During a Zoom news conference with reporters after the game, one of Lloyd’s Gotham teammates, Imani Dorsey, pounded the podium when she said: “We are grinding every single day. We just get the wind knocked out of us every single week. It’s heartbreaking. It’s devastating. We’re trying our best every day and it doesn’t feel like the league is doing that.”When asked what she thought about fans who have said they would boycott N.W.S.L. games, Dorsey said: “Any fan that I would say is feeling failed, or don’t have faith in the league, I’d say: Put your faith in the players association and the players. We want this league to be better.”Yet the tumult shows no signs of abating.On Tuesday, Washington Spirit’s chief executive, Steve Baldwin, announced that he would step down after bowing to pressure from Spirit players who criticized him for presiding over a toxic and abusive workplace under the team’s former coach, Richie Burke, who was fired last week. But the Spirit players dismissed Baldwin’s move as mere posturing, and demanded that he sell his share to one of the team’s co-owners, Y. Michele Kang.In Portland, the Thorns players demanded the immediate suspension of their general manager, Gavin Wilkinson. Wilkinson had presided over the team in 2015, when an internal investigation had substantiated claims of abuse against Riley so serious that the team dismissed him. Within months, Riley was coaching a different team in the league.Late Wednesday, the Thorns announced that Wilkinson had been placed on administrative leave. But players and fans quickly noted that his removal did not affect his similar role with the Thorns’ sister club, the Portland Timbers of Major League Soccer.The N.W.S.L. players association, meanwhile, released its own list of demands before Wednesday’s games, including investigations of every club, immediate suspensions for league and team executives accused of failing to protect players, access to previous investigative reports, and a voice in the league’s search for a new commissioner.“We are not bringing the N.W.S.L. down” in demanding action and investigations, Houston Dash defender Katie Naughton said in a brief statement after her team’s game in Portland. “We are rebuilding it into what we know it can and should be.“We believe in our bones that we can do this.” More