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      U.S. Team Distances Itself From Federation’s Decision to Alter Iran Flag

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      A day before a critical World Cup match with abounding political and competitive ramifications, players and coaches on the U.S. national team on Monday distanced themselves from social media posts made by their soccer federation that showed support for the women of Iran by doctoring that country’s flag.Gregg Berhalter, the American coach, said Monday that neither he nor any players were involved with the decision to remove Iran’s official emblem and two lines of Islamic script in posts on Twitter and Instagram.“We had no idea about what U.S. Soccer put out. The staff, the players, had no idea,” Berhalter told reporters Monday.He added: “Our focus is on this match. I don’t want to sound aloof or not caring by saying that, but the guys have worked really hard for the last four years. We have 72 hours between England and Iran, and we really are just focused on how to get past Iran and go to the knockout stage of this tournament. Of course, our thoughts are with the Iranian people, the whole country, the whole team, everyone, but our focus is on this match.”The Americans, after failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, can advance to the knockout rounds from Group B by defeating Iran, which would also progress with a victory.Iran condemned U.S. Soccer’s decision to use an incorrect flag. It said it violated the statutes of FIFA, world soccer’s global governing body. The American federation deleted the posts Sunday and said it would use only Iran’s official flag going forward.“The intent of the post was to show support for women’s rights,” Michael Kammarman, a U.S. Soccer spokesman, said at a news conference Monday. “It was meant to be a moment. We made the post at the time. All of the other representations of the flag were made consistent and will continue.”Over the past few months, and certainly at this World Cup, the Iranian team has become entangled with its country’s harsh treatment of women and its crackdowns on personal freedoms under theocratic rule. The team engaged in protests of its own after the September death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been arrested on charges of violating a law requiring head coverings for women.After refusing to sing the national anthem before its opening match, against England, the Iranian team appeared to join in before its next game, against Wales, with varying degrees of enthusiasm and commitment.“We can’t speak for them and their message,” U.S. defender Walker Zimmerman said. “We know that they’re all emotional. They’re going through things right now. They’re human, and, again, we empathize with that human emotion. So we completely feel for them.” More

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      Iran Calls for U.S. to Be Expelled From World Cup

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      DOHA, Qatar — A representative of Iran’s soccer federation on Sunday called for the United States to be expelled from soccer’s World Cup over social media posts that the federation claimed had “disrespected” Iran’s flag.The United States Soccer Federation drew Iran’s ire by including a doctored Iran flag in two posts on its official social media accounts on Saturday. A spokesman for U.S. Soccer said the decision to use an Iranian flag stripped of the country’s official emblem and two lines of Islamic script in posts on Twitter and Instagram was intentional, and meant to show support for the women of Iran — a nod to protests that have roiled Iran at home and followed its team to the World Cup in Qatar.Iran condemned the decision to use an incorrect flag, which it said violated the statutes of FIFA, world soccer’s global governing body.“Respecting a nation’s flag is an accepted international practice that all other nations must emulate,” Safia Allah Faghanpour, a legal adviser to Iran’s soccer federation, said in comments reported by a semiofficial state news agency in Iran. “The action conducted in relation to the Iranian flag is unethical and against international law.”The adviser’s comments were reported by Tasnim News, whose own social media profile includes an image of an American flag in flames.The United States and Iran are set to meet in a crucial game on Tuesday that was already fraught with political overtones and high stakes: The loser, if there is one, most likely will be eliminated from the tournament.Iran cited a specific FIFA regulation that it said called for penalties for anyone “who offends the dignity or integrity of a country, a person or group of people through contemptuous, discriminatory or derogatory words or actions (by any means whatsoever).”FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the dispute, and it is unlikely to intervene during the tournament.But Iran’s presence in the field has already made headlines: Fans arriving at matches with Iran’s prerevolutionary flag have been told it is not allowed inside stadiums, and Iran’s players have won praise — and criticism — for refusing to sing their national anthem at their opening game, and then appearing to grudgingly go along the second time they took the field.The U.S. Soccer spokesman, who requested anonymity to discuss internal discussions, said the American federation had not been contacted by FIFA about the social media posts. But it said it had deleted the two posts after a series of internal discussions on Sunday and would use Iran’s official flag moving forward.The US. players and their coach, Gregg Berhalter, were not involved in the decision to use the incorrect flag or to remove it, the spokesman said. More

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      Qatar Offered Fans Free World Cup Trips. But There Was a Catch.

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      Organizers are providing travel and tickets to hundreds of fans of the participating teams. But only if they promise not to criticize Qatar, and to report people who do.It is an offer good enough to make any soccer fan stop and listen. Free flights to the World Cup. Free tickets to matches. Free housing during the tournament and even a bit of spending money.But the offer comes with a catch.The handpicked fans who accept this trip of a lifetime — financed by Qatar, the host nation of this year’s World Cup — will be required to abide by contracts that will require them to sing what they’re told to sing, to watch what they say and, most controversially, to report social media posts made by other fans critical of Qatar.Yet despite those rules, hundreds of supporters have signed up.The invitations went out in late September, and targeted some of the most well-connected and well-known fan leaders backing the 32 teams headed to the World Cup. A Dutch fan told the broadcaster NOS that he had agreed to vet other supporters from the Netherlands. A board member from the American Outlaws, the biggest U.S. supporters group, agreed to take part, and then helped sign up fellow members and others.Fans from all of FIFA’s confederations have accepted the offer; dozens have already traveled to Qatar at least once for luxurious pre-World Cup visits. Those, too, were paid for by tournament organizers.Other fans, though, have declined. The conditions attached to the offer, one French fan told Le Parisien, felt like a step too far. “Despite the appetizing side of the dish, I preferred to stay true to my values,” said Joseph Delage, a member of a prominent French supporters group. More

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      Mana Shim Will Lead US Soccer Task Force on Abuse Reforms

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      Mana Shim’s revelations of sexual abuse by her coach helped drive a reckoning in women’s soccer. Her new job at U.S. Soccer should position her to direct change from inside the federation.Mana Shim hesitates to describe her new position as her dream job, she said, because working to root out abuse in soccer is “not something that anyone hopes there needs to be a position for.”But when U.S. Soccer’s president approached her in October about joining the federation as the leader of a new player safety committee, a job that will give her a leading role in shaping new policies to protect people from the kind of abuse she had endured as a player, Shim said she couldn’t help but feel as though she had found her calling.“I feel like this is my life’s work,” Shim said in an interview on Monday morning, just after she announced her new role on social media.I have a new job: I’m going to work at U.S. Soccer as the chair of its new Participant Safety Taskforce. We still have so much work to do! LFG.Here’s my full statement: pic.twitter.com/wtj2BrMr8f— Mana Shim (@meleanashim) October 31, 2022
      Shim will join U.S. Soccer as the chair of what the federation is calling its participant safety task force. The committee will report directly to the federation’s most senior leaders and is part of its continuing effort to digest the revelations and implement the recommendations detailed in a report into what was described by its lead investigator, Sally Q. Yates, as the “systemic” abuse of women and girls in American soccer.Among the details in the Yates report were the repeated efforts of players, including Shim, to raise concerns about abuse at the hands of coaches and the persistent failures of organizations like U.S. Soccer, the governing body for the sport in America, and the National Women’s Soccer League, in which Shim once played, to do enough to prevent it.In her new role, Shim, 31, will direct a committee of 25 to 30 people including not only players and coaches but also psychologists, trainers and team doctors. The hope, Shim said, is that such a diversity of experiences will ensure that all viewpoints are taken into account as U.S. Soccer creates pathways, educational programs and reporting systems to eradicate abuse in the sport.Shim admitted on Monday that the work would not be easy, or fast. But she also said she had decided the position was a natural fit for the skills she “intentionally acquired” in the years since she ended her career as a professional player: a law degree from the University of Hawaii; work on sexual abuse cases as a member of the public defender’s office in Honolulu; communications strategies as she worked to get her story out, and that of other players; and even time as an assistant coach at San Jose State, where she gained a new understanding of the power coaches can have over young players.All of her experiences, including her own painful and personal ones, had given her a holistic view of abuse, its forms, its victims and even its perpetrators.“Just as far as what I can offer, and what I care about,” Shim said of the new role, “it really feels like the perfect fit for where I am in my life and how I want to contribute in the world.”Still, she acknowledged that the idea of going to work for a federation that had failed her as a player was not a decision she had made lightly. Shim said she weighed those concerns, and the perceptions others might have of her choice, before agreeing to join. She will report directly to U.S. Soccer’s president, Cindy Parlow Cone, and its new chief executive, JT Batson.“It wasn’t a question of, ‘Is this a good idea?’” Shim said. “Because I do feel like it’s pretty obvious that U.S. Soccer has the power to make meaningful change in the sport. And if that’s my goal, then there’s no better place to be.“There’s always that worry, and apprehension, when it comes to stepping inside, because then you lose the power to question and criticize, and that was obviously something I was thinking about. But I do feel like because of the way I was approached, I feel like I will really be supported in this work in the way I do it.”Molly Levinson, who worked with Shim and others when they went public with their stories of abuse, said it was U.S. Soccer’s responsibility to ensure that the recommendations of the Yates report were enacted. Among the recommendations were the creation of a public list of individuals suspended or barred by U.S. Soccer, better vetting of coaches in the federation’s licensing process, mandatory investigations into accusations of abuse, and clear policies and rules about acceptable behavior and conduct.“When it comes down to it,” Levinson said, “the U.S. Soccer board of directors and the sponsors of the organization have the final say in what the organization does moving forward to make change. And the hope is they are committed to do that.”Shim acknowledged that she expected her education — legal, administrative and otherwise — to continue. But on Monday, she was just eager to get started, because “I know this is happening to other people.” She still hears new stories every week, from former teammates, from opponents she had never met, from strangers.“It’s not just my story,” Shim said. “Talking to other people, professional players as well as youth players and college players and — it’s just something I can’t get away from. And not in a bad way but in a way that inspires me.”“I’ve already experienced that rewarding feeling” of helping others, she added. “I feel like more needs to be done, obviously, which is why I’m here.” 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