3 minute read
The past week in professional women’s soccer has been a rollercoaster ride.
It began with a bittersweet moment on Monday, when the National Women’s Soccer League levied individual bans, years-long suspensions and hefty fines against several entities in the wake of its joint investigation with the players association last month.
And on Thursday night, professional women’s soccer was enthralled by the annual NWSL draft in Philadelphia. For several hours, hundreds of players anxiously waited for their names to be called and for the start of their professional careers to begin.
It certainly is an exciting time to be glued to this sport, especially since this week marks the beginning of a new chapter for professional soccer in the United States. As the NWSLPA’s executive director Meghann Burke put so well, “True accountability is found in the actions that have been taken thus far, and just as importantly, in the choices people in positions of power make moving forward. Now, it is time to realize the transformation.”
The accountability finally occurring in the women’s game is good for soccer as a whole — that includes the men’s side, and all the way down to the youth level. That’s why those in charge of the game at those levels would be smart to follow women’s soccer’s new lead in accountability and transparency.
The men’s side right now is knee-deep in its own turmoil, after Bergen County native and national team head coach Gregg Berhalter was sidelined on December 11 after U.S. Soccer initiated an investigation into his past misconduct.
Here’s a not-so-quick recap. Berhalter recently admitted to a 31-year-old domestic violence incident against his wife. But in his statement, he alluded to being blackmailed. It quickly unraveled that the people threatening to disclose this information were the Reynas — parents to national team player Gio Reyna, and lifelong friends to the Berhalters. This private dispute apparently came to a head when Berhalter told an audience after the World Cup that he had nearly sent an unnamed player home from the tournament, which was later confirmed to be Reyna.
The incident is messy and has put American men’s soccer in a weird place. Instead of celebrating what was a memorable run in the 2022 men’s World Cup and looking ahead to a 2026 tournament at home, we are all debating the ugly side of bad parenting in youth sports.
Here’s where the culture of accountability that is blossoming on the women’s side could come in.
In a recent Zoom call, three U.S. Soccer officials — president Cindy Parlow Cone, chief executive and secretary general JT Batson, and sporting director Earnie Stewart — spoke with reporters about the Berhalter investigation. Very few questions could be answered, because the investigation is ongoing. However, Parlow Cone did start the conversation off with a blanket statement.
“We’ve made important changes in how U.S. Soccer operates, especially as it relates to how we handle allegations of misconduct,” Parlow Cone told reporters. “We take allegations seriously. We investigate them and handle the communication with transparency.”
Let’s be clear: U.S. Soccer and the NWSL are not the same. However, U.S. Soccer did commission the Yates report, which shed additional light on several injustices in women’s soccer. The report also outlined how a broken youth soccer culture enabled abusive behavior to become so commonplace as players got older and worked their way up the professional ladder.
If U.S. Soccer really wants to take allegations seriously and handle these investigations with transparency — in the same way that the NWSL and NWSLPA have done over the past year — then American soccer could be headed in the right direction. That all remains to be seen, but there’s hope — so long as they follow the example currently being set in the women’s game.
Women & Sport is a NorthJersey.com column devoted to female athletes from the rec league level to those in college and the pros. If you’ve got a tip on an athlete from North Jersey who should be noted in the column, no matter how young they are or how old, please drop me a line at [email protected].
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