Joanne O’Riordan: NWSL needs to step up and tackle abuse

I can only describe the last week as being incredibly hard. It is tough if you are a woman, a young girl growing up with aspirations to take on the world or someone who just wants to trod along in their respective field.

Last week highlighted a terrifying feeling - whether you are in sport, walking home from a friend’s house, or evenjust out for a run - that you, as a woman, are not safe. In addition to that, everything you will be taught from the second you come out of your mothers’ womb will be solely based on the idea of protecting yourself and trusting others.

From a sporting context, Meg Linehan's stunning piece in The Athletic accusing former North Carolina Courage coach Paul Riley of abuse and misconduct, accusing the NWSL and various team owners of mishandling the accusation and reporting, absolutely cemented the idea that sports and society are intertwined.

In fact, in this column just over a month ago, I wrote how football and sport have a problem with sexual assault, believing victims and how it handles abuse. The entire 800 words were incredibly summed up by L'Équipe listing Manchester City player Benjamin Mendy, who is currently facing charges of raping and sexually assaulting multiple women, as unavailable because he's in prison.

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So, we’ve acknowledged it. It’s been shoved into our faces, tattooed on the back of our eyelids that there is a problem, and it is rife.

Take the NWSL as an example. Former NWSL commissioner Lisa Baird, who resigned late last week after the scandal came to light, did sensational work in commercialising and growing whatever sport she touched. She was the female version of King Midas.

But the same Lisa Baird worked as the Chief Marketing Officer for the US Olympics Committee for about a decade, starting in 2009. The USOC was informed of the allegations of sexual abuse against Larry Nassar in 2015. I struggle to believe the CMO would be in the dark about such allegations.

The same Lisa Baird tried to claim as recently as Tuesday that the original NWSL investigation didn't find sufficient evidence to dismiss Paul Riley. Therefore her hands were tied. When approached by one of Riley's victims, Mana Shim, Baird signed off by wishing her all the best in the future and thanked her for her email.

Here's the thing; it's been said by many that the NWSL is in the midst of a reckoning, but it's bigger than that. Women's soccer has been grappling with stories of abuse and mistreatment for several years. I want to point out that this is not a reckoning for women's soccer. It's a reckoning for the powerful taking advantage of vulnerable women and girls.

This is a tale that can be replicated across numerous sectors and numerous industries. The repeated strategy time and time again is to identify a sacrificial lamb, paper over the cracks and try to move on. Instead of deciding who the sacrificial lamb will be, every single organisation needs to be proactive. It can’t be a case of “everything is all set, we got rid of these one or two people.” You need to burn it all down to rebuild sometimes.

It’s so inspiring what the NWSL players are doing. They are doing their best to take back power and demand justice. Demanding justice in a world that continues to ask victims to jump through hoops to convince us a crime was committed upon them. It is a world that doesn’t put the onus on perpetrators to prove their innocence but instead asks the victim to prove she isn’t a liar. That’s if you get to the court system, many don’t even make it that far.

While the NWSL has shone a light on the horror shows in Portland and North Carolina, it can now be used to set a precedent for how victims can be treated. With various bodies coming on board to start an investigation, from Fifa down to national associations, now is the time to stamp out sexism, misogyny and abuse in the workplace.

As with everything, I won’t exactly hold my breath. There have been countless times the NWSL have been told about institutional abuses. In fact, this season’s biggest storylines for the so-called “best” league in the world have been four different coaches, all men, who have been fired in just the past four months for off-field reasons, including alleged verbal abuse, sexual misconduct, racist remarks and fostering toxic work environments.

Like any best company, the best league should protect its players and its employees and ask for better, be better, and do better. So, that’s the task for Fifa, US Soccer and the NWSL; to simply be better.

Be better by holding yourself accountable, protecting your employees and more importantly, taking responsiblity. If you don’t, it’s simply outrageous to call yourself the best at anything.