From women’s soccer to college sports, athletes have lost faith in leagues and organizations handling abuse and other complaints.
Players for the Portland Thorns and the Houston Dash paused during the sixth minute of their game on Oct. 6 to symbolize the years of abuse that athletes said went largely unchecked throughout the National Women’s Soccer League.Credit…
As revelation after devastating revelation emerged last month about soccer executives ignoring reports of male coaches sexually abusing or harassing female players, the National Women’s Soccer League Players Association hired an outside company to provide an anonymous online platform for athletes to report abuse and other concerns.
Three days later, the N.W.S.L. rolled out its own anonymous hotline, set up by a different company, to also allow anyone with knowledge of any misconduct to report issues anonymously.
Then four days after that, the league’s franchise in the state of Washington, OL Reign, made its own agreement — with the same company that the league hired — to report misconduct and policy violations at the club level.
