Morgan slams handling of sexual misconduct claims in US women's league
US national team star Alex Morgan blasted the American professional women's soccer league for not doing more to protect players over the last decade from sexual harassment by some of its coaches.
Morgan's comments on Tuesday come in the wake of The Athletic's reporting last week detailing alleged sexual misconduct by former National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) coach Paul Riley, spanning multiple teams and leagues since 2010.
Morgan, who plays for the Orlando Pride, was speaking on NBC's Today show where she was joined by two players, Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly, who played for Riley and went on record with allegations against him, including sexual coercion.
Morgan, who won a gold medal with the US Olympic team in 2012, said there was a systemic failure to pick up such cases and victims did not have channels such as anonymous hotlines to turn to.
"We've now started to put these things in place, by demand of players, not by the league being proactive. Something we ask is for the league to start being proactive, not reactive," said the 32-year-old.
Farrelly, 31, played for Riley at three different teams and accused him of "sexual coercion" while he was her coach at the Philadelphia Independence.
Riley went on to coach the North Carolina Courage after the Portland Thorns sacked him. The Courage fired Riley last week.
Shim, 30, called Riley a "predator", adding: "He sexually harassed me, he sexually coerced Sinead, and he took away our careers."
In the fallout from the allegations, NWSL commissioner Lisa Baird resigned last week.
In a statement to The Athletic, Riley denied wrongdoing, describing the allegations as "completely untrue".
"I have never had sex with, or made sexual advances towards these players," he said.
Meanwhile, the chief executive of another NWSL club, Washington Spirit, stepped down on Tuesday, as the fallout from the sexual misconduct scandal continued.
Steve Baldwin, who had been criticised for his handling of allegations of harassment and a toxic work culture against former Spirit coach Richie Burke - who was fired last month - said he was stepping down to "remove distractions" from the team. - AFP, REUTERS
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