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The latest allegations of abuse in the NWSL were made by Lindsey Horan.
The USWNT has reacted to allegations of abuse against a former coach. 1:45
The community around the two top-flight soccer teams of Portland, Oregon -- the Timbers of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the Thorns of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) -- can feel like a big family. Some supporters of these clubs have gotten married in the stands before matches or on the pitch, they have permanent tattoos for the teams, and some even plan their vacation time around attending away games together.
The Timbers Army and the Rose City Riveters had 6,000 dues-paying members, which helped create a matchday atmosphere that is considered one of the best in North America. The club's best asset is these hardcore fans. Over the years, the front office has gone out of its way to treat these supporters like they matter by meeting with them once a month, coordinating matchday operations, giving them schedules before they're publicly released, and partnering on community outreach projects.
The relationship has always been tense and the fans wield an unusual amount of power. The fans banded together in a protest against the club after they were upset over a new rule prohibiting an anti-fascist symbol inside the stadium. Fans refused to cheer at the Timbers-Sounders rivalry match because of the concessions boycott.
It became an embarrassment for MLS, which depended on the Timbers Army to help sell the atmosphere of the league, and Paulson was irate, yelling at fans that they caused the Timbers to lose to the Sounders due to their silence. The Timbers Army and the Rose City Riveters were able to get the symbol back into the stadium after MLS relented and allowed the fans back in.
Portland Timbers fans have acknowledged the sexual abuse allegations against their coach at every game since October. The club has been criticized for its handling of the allegations.
The club's values have come under fire from some hardcore fans who worry the club's values don't match their own. Some fans are questioning if the club's values of inclusion and equality are sincere after the sexual misconduct allegations involving a former coach.
These fans are making a choice that was unthinkable a year ago, they are letting their season tickets lapse and they don't know if they'll be back.
"People value this community and it does center on the teams, so it's really disappointing that a lot of folks feel like that might not be salvaged," Rachel Greenough said.
Sheba Rawson has been on the board that oversees the Timbers Army and the Rose City Riveters since the team joined MLS a decade ago and she says she's never seen so much unhappiness. Fans are writing their ticket reps or the front office, explaining why they are walking away, and sometimes they include supporters' group reps on the messages.
"I can't tell you how many people it is because I don't know how many more they are representing, but it's not on a scale I've seen before," Rawson said.
There was silence in Portland.
Some fans had a change of connection to their club in the fall. Two former Thorns players went public with allegations of sexual harassment by their former coach, Paul Riley. Riley had pressured them to kiss each other as he watched, sent them lurid photos of himself, greeted one player at a purported film session in his underwear, and berated them.
The allegations were a shock to fans, but not to the Timbers/Thorns front office, which handled the complaint about Riley internally and passed it along to the NWSL. The decision to dismiss Riley was made shortly after the complaint because of his poor on-field results. The club press release stated that Riley would not be retained, as the general manager was quoted thanking Riley for his service.
The North Carolina Courage said that they were assured that Riley was in good standing after he landed another head coaching job. Aaran Lines, a former teammate of Wilkinson, was the man who hired Riley after his exit.
Since the stories of Farrelly and Shim became public, Paulson wrote an open letter to fans promising an independent investigation into the club's handling of the matter. The culture of silence that may have allowed for additional victimization by a predatory coach is something that I as team owner and the organization repudiate. It's hard to say that the team that we have held as the highest standard in women's professional soccer in the world could have done more.
Sally Yates, the former acting attorney general, was retained by the U.S. Soccer Federation to look into allegations of abusive behavior and sexual misconduct in women's professional soccer.
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The Timbers/Thorns organization gave fans months to make a decision, seemingly enough time for the results of an investigation, because they were anticipating that fans would be turned off by the allegations. Greenough is an active member of the Rose City Riveters. The club hasn't committed to releasing the full results of the investigation or who is conducting it. Greenough didn't renewed her season tickets for 2022, so she filled out a survey to find out why.
She said that they don't want this to go away. We want to know why we should trust the front office again. We are worried because we don't know who is doing the investigation, we don't know when it will be released, and they are trying to sweep it under the rug.
The club announced on Tuesday that it had set a firm deadline for season ticket renewals: January 21. Fans said ticket reps promised the chance to renew after the investigation was complete. The club said in a statement that it expects season ticket renewals to be close to 90 percent for the Timbers.
The fans of the Timbers and Thorns went head-to-head with the club's front office over the ban on the Iron Front. The club lifted its ban after the confrontation.
The meetings of the elected board members of these supporters groups have stopped since the public allegations from Farrelly and Shim. The board meetings were canceled by the front office. Communication from front office executives has ceased, but coordination for game-day logistics has continued.
"We're talking about allegations that are very serious and, assuming they are true, the front office allowed an abuser to work with players for years," Rawson said. The relationship with the front office is not better when the issue is that large. We want an acknowledgement from the front office that they know how serious this is.
The club has yet to acknowledge the position they've put supporters in, according to the president of the 107IST.
The club said in a statement that it is ending such meetings permanently.
The small group of leadership of the 107IST needs to be more open to differing viewpoints. The club statement said that if a relationship is one-sided in a desire to drive protest over facts and players' desires, it isn't sustainable. The previous framework for dialogue and communication is due for a refresh and we will no longer be holding 107IST meetings in their current form as we look to increase our broader communication and input loops to the entirety of the supporters groups.
The club didn't comment on who is conducting the investigation, and it hasn't said much else publicly except for a letter from the club's lawyer, but it has promised on social media that it will say more later. The fan who opted out of tickets should do what's best for him, not the truth or facts, according to Paulson.
When Josh Lawrence, a member of the Timbers Army, canceled his season tickets and criticized the club's head of ticket sales, Joe Cote, on the internet, he responded in a since-deleted statement: "I thought you were a former supporter?" Lawrence thinks that the club would rather have new fans than vocal supporters.
Lawrence said that it felt like they were driving some of us away. The ones who care the most are the most difficult.
The club's response to the Riley scandal has fallen short for fans like Jo Thomson, who have been attending Thorns games since the team's second season. She hasn't renewed her season tickets and hasn't decided if she will attend via single-game tickets.
Thomson said that his money was used to torture the players. I'm angry about it and that hasn't happened.
The question of culture.
The NWSL college draft was supposed to give fans a reason to look ahead and be excited after a difficult Thorns season. The event made Rosas even more skeptical of the front office.
The club's first pick was the University of South Florida forward, Sydny Nasello, who shared viewpoints on social media that didn't match the club's stated values. Nasello shared anti-trans rhetoric. There is a conspiracy theory that the school shooting in Florida in February were a false flag operation. A family member claimed that false allegations of rape from women are common.
Nasello apologized to her fans as she said she was "pumped" to join the Thorns and was excited to learn from the people she's surrounded by in Portland. The Thorns' official account replied to it, but many fans insisted it was not an apology. Nasello locked down her social media accounts.
"I need someone to explain the pick," he said. There is enough evidence that she can score goals. The North End is not going to cheer for her.
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On Saturday, January, there will be a ceremony. 15.
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Gladbach will play Leverkusen in a game on Thursday, April 27. The time is later.
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On Sunday, January. 16.
Elche vs. Villarreal is scheduled to start at 8 a.m. The time is later.
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Real Madrid is playing Ath Bilbao. The time is later.
Rhian tried to explain it after the draft. "As a first year head coach, I need to hold my hand up and be responsible for not doing the work needed on the social media side," said the coach, who was hired in November. We're going to be working with this young lady and getting to know her. We are part of a club that is very clear on where we stand on social issues like this.
The club has yet to sign Nasello or any of its draft picks. The club did not comment on Nasello.
"If character is important, I don't know how you draft her," said Rawson. I don't know how you can let Paul Riley go without telling anyone that he's been terminated with cause. You publicly praise him, but don't tell anyone about the concerns. That's not showing a culture of character.
In the years after he knew of the allegations against Riley, he remained friendly with the coach, chatting with him before games and posting on social media that he was doing a "phenomenal job" in North Carolina. Years after the fact, Paulson deleted those tweets.
There will be more protests for 2022.
The Timbers Army and the Rose City Riveters are not a monolith, and not every fan is a member of those groups. Nasello's fans expressed their support online in a small number. Others have said they will wait until the results of the independent investigation into the club's handling of the Riley complaint are out.
The members of the Timbers Army and the Rose City Riveters sent a list of demands to the front office after the open letter from Paulson. Thomson can see herself and her family becoming season ticket holders if she addresses that list. She believes that filling the demand for a diversity, equity and inclusion officer along with a dedicated players representative could prevent another Paul Riley from being hired.
The bigger demand has been the removal of a person.
In her story, she said that in a meeting in his office in 2014, she was told not to talk about her sexual orientation. After being contacted by The Athletic, Wilkinson denied it initially, but later admitted he may have said something that was misinterpreted. The Thorns front office was angry at the reporter who wrote the feature because they found photos of the girl and her then-boyfriend in the profile.
In October, the Thorns put him on leave, but he remained in charge of the Timbers. By November, the investigation was still not complete, and he was replaced by a former Thorns goalkeeper. Fans say that proves the "one club" rhetoric is not true.
He is still sitting at the same desk. He's still going to have a lot of sway over that side of things. It's ridiculous to think that anyone would be so naive as to think that he wouldn't talk to me about Thorns.
The handling of the allegations against former coach Paul Riley has been the focus of fan complaints. The general manager of the Timbers is still there.
The club declined to comment on the matter. The club's most passionate fans are willing to protest into next season until the club's leader is gone.
In the 24th minute of the Timbers game, supporters light red smoke to draw attention to the allegations from Farrelly and Shim. Supporters have not spent money on concessions or merchandise inside the stadium since October. It was a protest that lost steam as the Timbers reached the MLS Cup, but supporters say they are committed to picking up where they left off.
A survey done in December of more than 700 fans found that most agreed with the concessions boycott as the right approach. Fans supported continuing the boycott or pushing harder if the front office didn't make any changes.
"We don't plan to stop doing things," he said. "How do things look different when the people who are more familiar with the issues are not inside the stadium?"
"Anything is still on the table," Greenough said. If we escalate in the stadium, we need to know we have the buy-in of more people, and that everyone would know what's happening and understand why.
It's been the most difficult part for the supporters who have season tickets to decide whether or not to attend games. The fans want to hold the front office accountable, but they don't want to stop supporting the players.
Thomson said that she was so convinced that we could make a positive change that she was depressed.
The members of the 107IST would rather not protest as much as they are willing to. If the club could take concrete actions to restore trust with the supporters, games may feel normal again.
Thomson said, "We always ask each other, when is this going to be fun again?"
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