U.S. Soccer promises action after Yates investigation details abuse and sexual coercion in NWSL

A new tidal wave of information exposing abuse, harassment, and sexual coercion in American women’s soccer crashed ashore on Monday when the U.S. Soccer Federation published an investigation led by former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates.

The 319-page report is detailed and often explicit, with brave and direct testimony from former players including Havertown’s Sinead Farrelly and Sellersville’s Jen Hoy.

Many names are named within a broad review of three former managers in the National Women’s Soccer League and its predecessors: Paul Riley (Philadelphia Independence, Portland Thorns, Western New York Flash, North Carolina Courage); Christy Holly (Sky Blue FC, Racing Louisville); and Rory Dames (Chicago Red Stars).

Some of the report’s findings were already known thanks to reports by media outlets including The Athletic and the Washington Post. But there is a lot of new information concerning the depth of Riley’s alleged coercion of Farrelly in Philadelphia. He allegedly leveraged his position as the coach in charge as her professional career started in Women’s Professional Soccer, the predecessor league to the NWSL, to force Farrelly into a sexual relationship. He also is accused of harassing other players throughout his coaching career.

Riley has denied the allegations.

The report also details how Holly treated players at Louisville and Sky Blue, which played at Rutgers University’s soccer stadium at the time. Dames was the subject of multiple complaints by players, including U.S. national team veteran Christen Press, about abusive behavior.

Yates’ words are damning of the American soccer establishment, from youth teams up to the pros.

“Let’s be clear what we’re talking about here: This is not a case of tough coaching, or players being overly sensitive,” Yates said in a virtual news conference. “We’re talking about sustained degrading and manipulative conduct that was all about power, not about enhancing a player’s performance; [and] sexual misconduct, including everything from sexually inappropriate remarks to harassment to unwanted sexual advances and sexual coercion.”

» READ MORE: U.S. Soccer investigation into NWSL finds systemic evidence of emotional abuse and sexual misconduct

When U.S. Soccer president Cindy Cone held her own virtual news conference after Yates spoke, she did not hold back her own feelings.

“This is near and dear to my heart,” said Cone, a former star player and the Thorns’ manager in 2013. The report notes that during her tenure, she was once sexually harassed by the team’s president of business, Mike Golub.

“The women’s game is really important to me, and many of the players in this report I know — many of them I’ve coached,” Cone said. “I found the full report shocking. … I just found it really maddening that players had to go through this.”

She praised Yates for taking “a victim-centered approach, because the last thing I wanted to do was cause more trauma by doing this investigation. And I think Sally did a great job of that.”

The report makes clear that many people knew of the allegations and evidence — but did not act on them.

“Those who were in a position to make a difference, didn’t,” Yates said. “They not only failed to respond appropriately to evidence of abuse, they had also failed to institute the most basic measures to prevent and address these issues to begin with, even as some of them privately acknowledged the need for these things.”

» READ MORE: Ex-Philadelphia Independence coach Paul Riley fired from NWSL team amid allegations of sexual misconduct

The report scolds the NWSL and U.S. Soccer for the ways in which the governing body funded and helped run the league’s early seasons.

“The League’s relationship with the Federation was a source of both confusion and consternation,” the report says. “In the haste to get the League off the ground, the Federation conducted limited financial due diligence on the new league’s prospective owners and did not put in place the infrastructure or planning necessary to support the League over the long haul. Instead, the focus was on putting eight teams on the field.”

And Yates said in her news conference: “In general, it appeared that the teams, the league, and the federation prioritized concerns of legal exposure to litigation by coaches, or the risk of drawing negative attention — that they prioritized these things over player safety.”

Some NWSL team owners are spotlighted for obstructing Yates’ investigation, including the Portland Thorns’ Merritt Paulson and the Chicago Red Stars’ Arnim Whisler. Those men and their fellow team owners were at the center of many of the questions Cone took, inquiring about whether American soccer’s governing body can force them out or whether it must yield to the NWSL — whose commissioner, like all pro sports commissioners, is hired by team owners.

Cone said a new task force formed out of U.S. Soccer’s board of directors, led by former national team player Danielle Slaton and U.S. Club Soccer CEO Mike Cullina, will be empowered to look at whether the federation’s Professional League Standards for teams and team owners can be used as a tool.

“That is something that we’re going to have the new board committee take a really hard look at,” Cone said. “We haven’t changed our professional standards in a long time, and I think this is one thing that they’ll be tasked with: looking at that and seeing what we can do there.”

A statement from U.S. Soccer said the task force will share an action plan with U.S. Soccer membership and the public outlining next steps for implementation of the report’s remaining recommendations” by Jan. 31.

» READ MORE: An ESPN documentary on abuse in the NWSL tells many truths, but there are more still to tell

Asked directly whether she believes the Thorns organization engaged in a cover-up, Cone answered at length.

“I think it will take some time to really read through it and think about the actions and inactions of certain people, and that will take us some time to really think about what needs to be done in terms of discipline,” she said in part, noting that she didn’t have the report for long before it became public. “This is bigger than one person, one organization, this is really systemic.”

U.S. Soccer also announced three actions it will take in the near term:

“I’m ready and I’m committed to doing the work and taking the meaningful action to create that lasting change,” Cone said. “I will continue to be transparent and open and continue reporting on our progress every step of the way.”

Concurrent with Yates’ investigation, the NWSL and NWSL Players’ Association have been running their own investigation into misconduct. A statement from the NWSLPA on Monday said that investigation is still ongoing. There are no indications whether there will be any civil or criminal suits after all the investigations are done.

» READ MORE: Cindy Cone helped achieve long-sought equal pay deals for the U.S. men's and women's national teams

One name from outside the NWSL that comes up repeatedly in the report is former U.S. Soccer Federation CEO Dan Flynn. There are a number of instances when Flynn may have learned of allegations and complaints, whether formal or informal, and no action was taken. The report notes that Flynn “declined to be interviewed but provided written responses to our questions through counsel.”

Flynn retired from U.S. Soccer in late 2019, but he didn’t stay out of work for long. By the summer of 2020, he was running the bidding process for potential host cities for the 2026 FIFA men’s World Cup that will be played in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. This past April, FIFA hired Flynn to be a senior executive adviser, and one of the organization’s two main point people in the U.S. for organizing a tournament in which Philadelphia will be one of 16 host cities.

Asked whether U.S. Soccer would raise a complaint with FIFA about Flynn’s role, Cone said: “There are many people who are not necessarily still under U.S. Soccer’s umbrella that have gone on to other places, whether in our sport or outside of our sport, and those entities will have to make the decision that they want to make. Obviously, discussions will continue.”

And Yates gave her view: “We laid out all the facts as we found them, by name, in this report, in part so that others who are outside of the U.S. Soccer framework could make decisions about what future participation should be for several of the individuals that we’ve identified here. I don’t think it’s our place to be telling FIFA what they should do; I think that they should read the report and make an independent decision from there.”

» READ MORE: Philadelphia will host 2026 men’s World Cup games, bringing a global sports spectacle to America’s birthplace