In early October former NWSL head coach, Paul Riley, was accused by former players of coercing them into having sex with him at various different teams since 2010. Riley was one of the most decorated and well respected coaches in the league, so this story initially came as a shock to many. Many former players were courageous enough to step up and share their stories. One of the most heartbreaking stories came from Midfielder Sinead Farrelly who played for Riley at three different team across the league since 2011. In her own words she felt “claimed” by Riley, as she shared personal stories with him, was inappropriately touched, a and coerced into having sex with him. This continued in the off season and whenever he moved clubs he continued to seek her out, finding a way for her to join the club as well. He took a toll on her emotionally and mentally, even leading her to collapse in a game in 2014 due to the high stress levels it caused her. Meleana Shim, a teammate of Farrelly also came forward with accusations against Riley, giving a specific example of how Riley used his position of power to make to two women participate in sexual actions. In this example she explained that her and Farrelly ended up in his hotel room after a night out with the team, where Shim asked the two to kiss if they didn’t want the team to run a suicide mile drill that week.
These players, along with many other coming forward not only exposed how Riley used his position to take advantages of players, but also exposed how the NWSL was quick to cover the accusations. The accusations against Riley first came to light in 2015, when Shim, with the help of teammate Alex Morgan, e-mailed a complaint to both Portland Thorns owner Merritt Paulson and the HR rep Nancy Garcia. They told her without any evidence she did not have a legal claim. While the Thorns released Riley later that season, they covered it up making people think it was do to their poor results and record. Riley was still allowed to coach and became the head coach of the North Carolina Courage where he continued to prey on more players. Former United States Women’s Soccer player and three time Olympic gold medalist, Heather O’Riley, spoke up about the current allegations explaining that “we want to continue our personal careers and there’s not as many opportunities for players to be professional footballers so I think that’s a reason why a lot of things are just dealt with. As a player you just take it.” This one statement here from a former NWSL player goes to show how vulnerable these female athletes are when it comes to wanting to live out their dreams of being a professional soccer player. It is easy to take advantage of these players who believe this is the only way they can make it to where they want in life. The NWSL’s lack of accountability and thorough investigation enables behavior like this and leaves future female soccer players concerned about their safety rather than competing in their sport.
https://www.insider.com/nwsl-sexual-abuse-accusations-against-coach-paul-riley-2021-10
Great and powerful post, I remember hearing about this but not nearly as much as it should have. I do feel like there needs to be more protections for female athletes, because if this is happening at one place I’m sure we can find it going on in another, sadly.
This is a great presentation! This is something that we’ve seen more times than it should be happening with examples like Nassar. I think you did an excellent job analyzing the situation, its effects, and why it’s an example of systemic injustice. It’s horrible that this is something that happens so often to female athletes and just the fact that people accept these actions or try to hide it is disgusting and it needs to change. There’s already so much against women in this world, let alone female athletes. And for many of these situations, as you described, it gets brushed under the rug in an attempt to maintain reputation without actually seeing how much it affects these women.