Portland and Chicago Owners Step Aside as U.S. Soccer Stars Call for Change

Dames resigned from the Red Stars last year as the Washington Post prepared a report about his behavior.

“I am so deeply sorry for what our players experienced during their time spent in Chicago,” Whisler said in a statement. “Our organization is committed to rebuilding trust and respect among players and staff towards our league and club, and I recognize that my current presence is a distraction.”

Sauerbrunn and her teammate Alana Cook, who spoke on the same call on Tuesday evening, were unsparing in their view that strong action, including the forced sale of teams and the firing of officials known to have hidden or abetted the abuse of women, was overdue.

“I think it’s time,” Sauerbrunn said, “for those that are in authority and leadership positions to start holding each other accountable, and asking for the change that needs to happen.”

Cook, like Sauerbrunn, said that with players having come forward to reveal and document years of abuse, the responsibility to remove problematic coaches, executives and owners lay with the sport’s leadership.

“For so long it’s been on the players to speak out,” Cook said. “It shouldn’t be on us anymore.”

Sauerbrunn and Cook spoke in London, where the United States will play the European champion England in an exhibition game Friday night. Both players, and their coach, Vlatko Andonovski, said the team was reeling from the revelations in the Yates report, and struggling to focus on Friday’s game.

“The players are not doing well,” Sauerbrunn said. “We are horrified and heartbroken and frustrated and exhausted and really, really angry.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/04/sports/soccer/uswnt-abuse-sauerbrunn-paulson-thorns.html