January 9, 2023 – National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) News Release
NEW YORK – The National Women’s Soccer League announced today corrective action in response to the findings of the Joint Investigative Report released on December 14, 2022. As previously disclosed, the Joint Investigative Team found that the failures across the league and U.S. Soccer were largely systemic in nature and made recommendations on several forward-looking and structural reforms to improve the league’s policies and practices. Discipline applicable to specific individuals and organizations was left to the discretion of the league. Following extensive review of the Report, NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman has imposed, where appropriate, individual bans, suspensions and fines, as well as the conditions by which certain individuals would be eligible for future work in the league in response to the investigation findings, specifically those summarized in Section V of the Report.
Commissioner Berman stated, “The league will continue to prioritize implementing and enhancing the policies, programs and systems that put the health and safety of our players first. Those actions are fundamental to the future of our league, especially as we build a league that strengthens our players’ ability to succeed and prosper on and off the pitch. As part of our commitment to accountability and deterrence, the league has determined that further corrective action with respect to certain organizations and individuals identified in the Joint Investigative Report is appropriate and necessary.”
Penalties detailed below are assigned according to a tiered system based upon a combination of factors: the degree of severity of the misconduct that occurred, whether individuals in positions of power knew or should have known of the misconduct, the degree or repetition of the misconduct, evidence of retaliatory conduct, the proximate nature of the behavior or action to the present, and actions that failed to communicate the misconduct with others. The level of the penalty is reduced in cases where there were mitigating factors such as the responsibility of others for contributing to the misconduct and voluntary disclosure, corrective action such as acceptance of responsibility, and good faith efforts to mitigate poor decisions such as removing people in positions of authority who failed to act.
All corrective action fines will be used solely in furtherance of systemic reform and to directly and positively…