Friday, October 1st, 2021
Parallels to the Biles case
US Women’s League stopped after abuse scandal
An abuse scandal shakes the US women’s football professional league. The players demand drastic consequences, the league suspends the game for at least one game day. “Our whole league has to heal now,” says their boss Lisa Baird.
Due to an abuse scandal involving former coaches, the US women’s soccer professional league NWSL is interrupting its game operations. There will be no games this weekend, said league boss Lisa Baird. “This week and much of this season has been incredibly traumatic for our players,” said Baird. You take responsibility. “I’m sorry for the pain so many feel,” she said.
The background to the decision are allegations against the coach of North Carolina Courage. Coach Paul Riley had been sacked by two players after a report by The Athletic portal about alleged sexual abuse. Two other coaches had previously lost their posts due to misconduct. The Association of Women Players (NWSLPA) even criticized “systemic abuse” in the league.
“Our whole league has to heal now, our players deserve a lot better,” said league boss Baird. The decision to cancel the match day was made together with the soccer players. The aim is to change the culture of the league. “That is long overdue,” said Baird. At first it remained unclear whether the game day would be canceled completely or made up later.
Toxic culture in US sports
The shocking details of sexual assault, abuse of power, and ubiquitous humiliation also enraged Megan Rapinoe. “Burn everything down. Let all their heads roll,” demanded the world’s most famous footballer on Twitter.
The far-reaching scandal is causing a barrel to overflow. Rapinoe and her colleagues run storm against a toxic culture in which physical and verbal attacks by men on women are not cleared up, but rather swept under the carpet.
So it was that Paul Riley was allowed to work as a trainer for the two-time champions North Carolina Courage until he was released on Thursday. As early as 2015, after Riley had also trained ex-national goalkeeper Nadine Angerer at the Portland Thorns, the allegation of misconduct against a player had been dealt with internally.
But Riley was allowed to move on unharmed. Only now did the US federation revoke his license and show itself “deeply concerned”. Parallels to the long hushed up abuse scandal in US gymnastics are evident.
At least three cases
The trigger? A report by the portal “The Athletic” paints a detailed picture of an encroaching, manipulative power man based on descriptions of two ex-players. Sinead Farrelly said the Englishman forced her to have sex several times between 2010 and 2015: “I felt under his control.”
Riley denied the allegations, but his club dismissed him because of the “grave allegations”. But since Farrelly had already unsuccessfully initiated a serious investigation against Riley with NWSL boss Lisa Baird in April of this year, an entire league is in the pillory that wants to be the best in the world.
Riley is the third NWSL coach to be fired for misconduct this year. A fourth case occurred at OL Reign, the club of national player Dzsenifer Marozsan since the summer, where Farid Benstiti resigned. The clubs never publicly explained the background and accepted that new players at other clubs might be in danger.
Demand for drastic consequences
The female players’ association NWSLPA calls for an end to the “systemic abuse” of female footballers who are weakened outside the national team by precarious contracts, some earn less than 30,000 dollars a year and who worry about the NWSL future. Anyone who makes grievances public, so far the fear, will lose their job, be traded at the next opportunity or damage the league founded in 2012, which urgently has to survive after two failed attempts.
It is all the more important that inviolable idols such as star striker Alex Morgan and ex-world footballer Rapinoe now raise their voices and demand drastic consequences for a cultural change to protect female footballers. Rapinoe judged that anyone who let Riley move on unscathed was also a “monster, and you can all submit your resignation immediately”.