The North American Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) announced on Monday that it has banned for life four coaches accused of sexually assaulting female players, a month after it filed its investigation report into the violence and abuse committed over several years.
To punish these “continuous irregularities”, verified after 14 months of examining the complaints of the players of the NWS extensionalso victims of manipulation, harassment and reprisals, as well as the culpable passivity and inaction of the owners and managers of some premises, the institution, chaired by Commissioner Jessica Berman, has imposed a whole series of sanctions.
The most serious – by their definitive nature – were inflicted on Paul Riley, Christy Holly, Rory Dames and Richie Burke, all banned for life of the NWSL.
The NWSL has announced a corrective action in response to the findings of the joint investigation report.
Below is a summary of the individual and team sanctions: pic.twitter.com/tBGGsEbKG8
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Riley, a former Portland Thorns coach, was accused by two players of forcing the former to have non-consensual sex and sexually harassing the latter. He is the subject of a separate US soccer investigation led by former US Attorney General Sally Yates.
Holly, who ran Racing Louisville, was fired after being accused of sexual assault and touching a player.
Dames, a former Chicago Red Stars coach, was also scrutinized in the Yates report, which detailed his penchant for verbally attacking, name-calling, and threatening players.
Finally, Burke, who headed the Washington Spirit, had a habit of verbally stigmatizing players’ ethnicity.
Former Chicago Red Stars assistant coach Craig Harrington and former Gotham FC general manager Alyse Lahue were suspended for two years from any NWSL-related duties.
Other subjects affected by the sanctions
Six more people will have to prove themselves before finding a job within the league. They will be expected to “admit guilt and take responsibility for inappropriate behavior, participate in training, and demonstrate a sincere commitment to correcting their behavior.”
The Red Stars of Chicago and the Plugs of Portland They will each have to pay a fine of 1.5 million and one million dollars for their attitude in these cases, which ranges from negligence in the face of the acts committed to the desire to hide them.
Finally, having ascertained in the course of its investigation, conducted jointly with the players’ union, the systemic failures that have occurred within it and within the American federation, the League he fined his own office “at least a million dollars” and promised it would undergo a complete overhaul.
