“A Culture Of Abuse” Sally Yates Investigation Finds US Soccer Needs Serious Reform

Sally Yates was hired on October 3rd 2021 to investigate claims of abuse inside US Soccer and the NWSL — and the results were as expected… if not, difficult for any NWSL fan to read. The report itself wasn’t incredibly surprising — I put together a timeline of Red Stars owner Arnim Whisler knowledge regarding Rory Dames and it matches up with the timeline presented in Yates’ report — but to read it all laid out in front of you for 300+ pages is incredibly heartbreaking. The depths at which players were harassed, coerced, lied to, racially targeted, and sexually abused has completely corrupted any attempt at clean up by the Federation.

Yates said the investigation revealed, “Abuse in the NWSL is rooted in a deeper culture in women’s soccer, beginning in youth leagues, that normalizes verbally abusive coaching and blurs boundaries between coaches and players”

These coaches “didn’t just pop up” in professional women’s soccer, they were youth coaches, they were college coaches, and they ran youth academies.

Rory Dames had been questioned by the police for an alleged sexual assault he committed against an athlete on his youth team.

There are allegations against Paul Riley from when he coached the Philadelphia Independence that write…