Some of the biggest stars of the U.S. women’s national team publicly criticized the U.S. Soccer Federation, the sport’s powerful governing body, for “willful inaction” in the wake of revelations Tuesday in The Washington Post that a longtime coach in the National Women’s Soccer League, Rory Dames, had been accused of misconduct with youth players decades earlier.
“U. S. Soccer had the obligation to protect its players — yet it stood by as abuse continued to occur unchecked,” the players wrote in a letter addressed to federation president Cindy Parlow Cone and former president Carlos Cordeiro.