A little over a week ago, 15 Spanish women’s national soccer team players wrote letters to The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) claiming they had been verbally abused and mistreated by coach Jorge Vilda. This week, U.S. Soccer seemed to admit to some of the same abuse taking place within the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) by making recommendations to change the “systemic” culture in the league.
An independent investigation revealed verbal and emotional abuse as well as sexual misconduct throughout the league. The full details of the investigation were made public by former United States Acting Attorney General Sally Q. Yates. The investigation began following the firing of North Carolina Courage head coach Paul Riley for alleged sexual misconduct. The allegations were found to be so serious by the league that a round of games was canceled and league commissioner Lisa Baird was forced to resign from her position.
Now, U.S. Soccer is putting safeguarding measures into place to protect the players from such abuse. The organization has put a Participant Safety Taskforce into effect. The taskforce will be made up of at least a third of athlete representatives. The members will be implementing changes from the professional level all the way down to grassroot clubs across the United States. The new U.S. Soccer chief executive will be the leader of this new task force and will share more about its mission, membership and a timeline for changes within the organization over the next month.
In addition to the taskforce, U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone has also put together a new committee made up of board members to plan and present an action plan regarding the findings of the investigation to be put into effect by January. The committee is made up of former U.S. women’s national team player Danielle Slaton alongside vice-chair Mike Cullina, the U.S. Club Soccer chief executive, and will also include Lori Lindsey, Richard Groff, Pete Zopfi and Lisa Carnoy.
Parlow Cone said in a statement, “The abuse described is inexcusable and has no place on any playing field, in any training facility or workplace. As the national governing body for our sport, U.S. Soccer is fully committed to doing everything in its power to ensure that all players - at all levels - have a safe and respectful place to learn, grow and compete.” Parlow Cone went on to say, “We are taking the immediate action that we can today and will convene leaders in soccer at all levels across the country to collaborate on the recommendations so we can create meaningful, long-lasting change throughout the soccer ecosystem.”
The US Soccer Board of Directors voted to release the investigation in full after receiving the full report as long as the victims’ identities and privacy could be protected. Parlow Cone thanked Yates for her work on the investigation. “I am grateful to Sally Yates and her team for their dedicated work, and to everyone who participated openly and honestly in the investigation, especially the players who courageously came forward publicly to share their experiences and set in motion the process of identifying the facts and driving necessary and immediate change,” said Parlow Cone.
“We have significant work to do, and we’re committed to doing that work and leading change across the entire soccer community.”
With these changes within U.S. Soccer and the NWSL, there is hope that female athletes not only in soccer, but in all sports, will begin to be treated the way they deserve; with the level of respect their male counterparts receive.
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