Portland Thorns and U.S. women’s national team defender Becky Sauerbrunn on Tuesday condemned those in power who allowed misconduct and abuse to metastasize across the National Women’s Soccer League.
“The players are not doing well,” Sauerbrunn told media after USWNT training in London on Tuesday. “We are horrified and heartbroken and frustrated and exhausted and really, really angry.
“It’s my opinion that every owner and executive and U.S. Soccer official who has repeatedly failed the players and failed to protect the players, who have hidden behind legalities and have not participated in these investigations, should be gone.”
Her comments came a day after the release of a bombshell investigative report conducted on behalf of U.S. Soccer that detailed widespread misconduct and abuse in the NWSL.
Sauerbrunn, a NWSL and USWNT veteran who recently signed a one-year extension with the Thorns, is among the most consistent and outspoken advocates for social change in the sport. She was part of a team of players and other stakeholders who secured equal pay for the USWNT in its collective bargaining agreement earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Thorns and Timbers fans have called for owner Merritt Paulson to sell both clubs and fire executives Mike Golub and Gavin Wilkinson in the wake of Monday’s report. Paulson said Tuesday afternoon that he would remove himself, Golub and Wilkinson from all Thorns-related decision making until the NWSL and its players’ association completes a joint independent investigation into the league’s misconduct. The details of that investigation, Paulson said, could could come in November.
All three are named in the U.S. Soccer report — Golub for an inappropriate sexual remark he made to then-Thorns coach and now-U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone in 2013, and Wilkinson and Paulson for enabling and vouching for former Thorns coach Paul Riley, who has been accused by former players Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly of sexual misconduct.
Sauerbunn’s call for ownership and executive change, ostensibly, includes Paulson, Golub and Wilkinson, among those who repeatedly failed players.
“A lot of trust has been broken,” Sauerbrunn said. “I don’t know what is going to change.”
Read the full U.S. Soccer report here.
-- Ryan Clarke, rclarke@oregonian.com, Twitter: @RyanTClarke
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