"For too long, the hardworking and talented women of the National Women's Soccer League were forced to endure an unacceptable culture of abuse, harassment, and retaliation," New York Attorney General Letitia James said Wednesday, announcing a $5 million settlement over the league's sexual abuse scandal. The NWSL's settlement with James and the attorneys general of Illinois and Washington, DC, creates a restitution fund and requires the league to make policy changes to improve player safety, the BBC reports. After scandals erupted in the league in 2021, an investigation found that sexual misconduct and emotional abuse were "systemic" in the sport.
The reforms include rigorous vetting of personnel and channels for players to confidentially report abuse. Players will also be offered free counseling. "There were so few protocols in place to vet coaches and protect players that coaches who had been removed from abusing players on one team would quickly find a new home in another city with a different club—then, predictably, the same abusive and unlawful behavior would start again," Brian Schwalb, DC's attorney general, said Wednesday, per NPR.
"No dollar amount could ever fully address the damage that was inflicted, but now my office, together with New York and Illinois, will have oversight authority to ensure that the league's new safety policies are implemented and that current and future players are protected," Schwalb said. Tori Huster, president of the NWSL Players Association, said the settlement wouldn't have happened if players hadn't risked their careers to speak out, the AP reports. "This $5 million restitution fund is not a gift. Nor is it justice," she said. "This fund exists because players refuse to be silenced. And we found the courage to stand together as a collective." (More women's soccer stories.)
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