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Two former players have come forward with allegations that National Women’s Soccer League head coach Paul Riley coerced them into sexual acts while serving as their coach.
Riley, who is currently the head coach of the North Carolina Courage, has been a head coach in women’s soccer since 1990. Sinead Farrelly played for him at three different clubs and detailed to Meg Linehan of The Athletic this week the manner in which she felt he used his power to influence her.
Farrelly played under Riley with the Philadelphia Independence, New York Fury and Portland Thorns from 2011 to 2015. At each stop along the way, Farrelly said Riley used his position as head coach to gain control over her, frequently praising and criticizing her in a cycle that made her feel like she was “his” player.
Farrelly said that after the Independence lost to the Western New York Flash in the Women’s Professional Soccer final in 2011, Riley socialized and drank with his team, after which Riley coerced her into his hotel room at the end of the night and into having sex with him.
Aged 22 at the time, Farrelly said Riley told her she had followed him into his room and that they would take the fact that they had sex “to our graves.”
Farrelly and former Portland teammate Mana Shim each said Farrelly took both of them to his apartment on one occasion and had them kiss in front of him in order to prevent the team from having to run the “suicide mile” in practice, a fitness drill that “everyone hated.”
Shim, who said she experienced a similar cycle of praise and criticism to Farrelly, also said Riley once invited her into his hotel room to watch film, but when she arrived he was wearing only his underwear, so she left.
Both women also said Riley had sent them a photo of himself just wearing compression shorts.
Farrelly said she was coerced into having sex with Riley on multiple occasions and once had sex with both Riley and one of her teammates at the same time. When she started dating one of her teammates, Riley would allegedly tell her she was “too hot to be a lesbian” and that she wasn’t a “real lesbian” after having sex with a man previously.
She said Riley was also upset when she accepted an invitation to a United States women’s national team camp and that as a result she turned down an invitation to take the final roster spot on the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup team to appease him.
USWNT star Alex Morgan, who played under Riley in Portland from 2014-15 and was teammates with Farrelly and Shim, tweeted the following in support of the players:
Alex Morgan @alexmorgan13
Mana and Sinead, we support you and are in your corner. I am sickened and have too many thoughts to share at this moment. Bottom line: protect your players. Do the right thing @NWSL https://t.co/7TGymLLrvn
Linehan also spoke with more than a dozen of Riley’s former players and 10 other sources regarding Riley’s conduct.
Players said Riley would often drink and socialize with his players and that he would pick up the tab. They also said he held week-long retreats at his home on Long Island in New York in 2015 and 2016 featuring drinking and swimming in his pool. Those players said attendance was mandatory and they weren’t allowed to leave.
The NWSL Players’ Association released the following statement Thursday in support of the players who came forward regarding Riley’s alleged misconduct:
NWSLPA @nwsl_players
SYSTEMIC ABUSE PLAGUING THE NWSL MUST NOT BE IGNORED pic.twitter.com/WlhcWW7R8m
According to Linehan, Riley denied many of the allegations:
“Riley responded to a list of 23 questions about his alleged conduct with an email in which he stated that the majority of the allegations are ‘completely untrue.’ He wrote: ‘I have never had sex with, or made sexual advances towards these players.’ He said he sometimes socialized with players and occasionally picked up bar tabs, ‘but I do not take them out drinking.’ He conceded that over the course of his career ‘there’s a chance I’ve said something along the way that offended someone,’ but he added ‘I do not belittle my players, comment on their weight, or discuss their personal relationships.’ He also denied holding film sessions in his hotel room.”
Per The Athletic, the NWSLPA also called for the league to open a new investigation into Riley’s conduct and an investigation into why he was hired by the Western New York Flash in 2016 following an investigation into him in 2015.
Shim filed a complaint with the Thorns’ front office in 2015, and the decision was made by Portland to not renew Riley’s contract following an investigation.
Farrelly and Shim asked the NWSL to launch a new investigation into Riley earlier this year when the league instituted a new anti-harassment policy, but commissioner Lisa Baird told them Riley had already been “investigated to conclusion.”
In a statement to Linehan, an NWSL spokesperson said the investigation was closed, before adding, “The behavior described by former players has absolutely no place in our league and will not be tolerated.”
Riley has been the head coach of the North Carolina Courage since 2017 and remains in that role.
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