(Los Angeles) The North American Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) announced Monday that it has banned for life four coaches accused of sexual assaults on female players, a month after submitting its investigation report into violence and abuse committed since several years.
To punish these “continued wrongdoings”, verified after 14 months of examining complaints from NWSL players who were also victims of manipulation, bullying and retaliation, as well as culpable passivity and inaction by owners and managers of a number of clubs, the body, headed by commissioner Jessica Berman, imposed a whole series of sanctions.
The most severe – due to their finality – were inflicted on Paul Riley, Christy Holly, Rory Dames and Richie Burke, all banned for life from the NWSL.
Riley, a former Portland Thorns coach, was accused by two players of coercing the first into non-consensual sex and sexually harassing the second. 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, also came under scrutiny in the Yates report, which detailed his propensity to verbally attack, insult and threaten players.
Finally, Burke, who was at the head of the Washington Spirit, had the habit of verbally stigmatizing the ethnicity of players.
Former Chicago Red Stars assistant coach Craig Harrington and former Gotham FC general manager Alyse Lahue have been suspended for two years from any NWSL-related duties.
Six other people will have to prove themselves before finding a job within the league. They will be required to “acknowledge their wrongdoing and take responsibility for inappropriate conduct, participate in training, and demonstrate a sincere commitment to correcting their behavior.”
The Chicago Red Stars and the Portland Thorns will each have to pay fines of $1.5 million and $1 million for their attitude in these cases, ranging from negligence in the face of the acts committed to their desire to conceal them.
Finally, having established during its investigation, conducted jointly with the players’ union, systemic failures occurring within it and within the American Federation, the League imposed on its own office “a fine of at least one million dollars” and promised that it would undergo a complete overhaul.