US Soccer announced Monday that its investigation into abusive behavior and sexual misconduct in women’s soccer, spearheaded by Sally Q. Yates, is nearing completion and it expects a final report to be published in early October. Yates was retained by USSF nearly a year ago, as the federation announced in early October 2021 that it had retained the former US attorney general to lead the investigation.
The investigation was a response to multiple reports of allegations of abusive behavior by coaches in the National Women’s Soccer League, starting with The Athletic‘s September 2021 report on allegations of sexual coercion by former North Carolina Courage head coach Paul Riley.
NWSL retained its own investigators through law firm Covington & Burling to reopen the Portland Thorns’ original investigation into a complaint filed by then-Thorns player Mana Shim concerning Riley, as well as to review club policies on harassment and workplace conduct, and the Thorns hired law firm DLA Piper to review their handling of Riley’s termination in 2015.
Recent additional reporting by Ryan Clarke at The Oregonian and Jeff Carlisle at ESPN on the original Thorns investigation that led to Riley’s termination portrayed the club as having obfuscated the reasons why Riley left Portland, as well as attributed a conflict between then-Thorns president of soccer Gavin Wilkinson and player Mana Shim as a misunderstanding, with Wilkinson claiming he called Shim into his office to talk to her about having participated in a panel about polyamory and not to tell her to stop talking about her sexuality.
The new reports led to further recrimination from Shim, who said in tweets last week that Wilkinson explicitly told her to be “more like a player who we both knew to be closeted.” There was no misunderstanding.”
I’ve been thinking about this for a little while and I want to set the record straight after the Thorns “investigation” was released. Gavin Wilkinson explicitly told me to be more like a player who we both knew to be closeted. There was no misunderstanding.
— Mana Shim (@meleanashim) September 10, 2022
Yates released a statement in February 2022 saying that the scope of her investigation was broad and included not just the allegations of misconduct themselves, but factors that may have contributed to abuse, and that the USSF was committed to making the findings public.
Just got a statement on behalf of @SallyQYates on the ongoing #NWSL investigation for US Soccer.
“This process requires transparency, and from the beginning of our engagement, US Soccer has committed to making our findings public.” pic.twitter.com/A80cvK8BNg
— Meg Linehan (@itsmeglinehan) February 11, 2022
Early October coincides with the US women’s national team playing two friendly games in Europe, with one game against England on October. 7 and another game against Spain on Oct. 11.
(Photo: M. Anthony Nesmith / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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