YATES REPORT: ABUSE STARTS WITH YOUTH SPORTS Abuse in Women’s Soccer Follows Familiar Pattern
Portland Thorns fans hold signs during a 2021 game. Photo: Steve Dipaola / AP
The San Francisco Chronicle and numerous other sources have recently written about the newly-released “Yates Report,” the Report of the Independent Investigation to the U.S. Soccer Federation Concerning Allegations of Abusive Behavior and Sexual Misconduct in Women's Professional Soccer conducted by Sally Q. Yates, former U.S. Deputy Attorney General. Read the full Yates Report here.
“Damning and nauseating,” writes Ann Killion of the Chronicle, “the report issued this week...should serve as a blaring alarm bell for all parents whose kids—particularly daughters—are playing competitive youth sports.”
Yates’ investigation found abusive behavior and gross negligence at the highest levels of women's soccer: the NWSL and U.S. Soccer. It also unveiled systemic abuse that begins much earlier.
“Over and over, Yates' report shows that abusive behavior becomes normalized in youth sports, when players are adolescents,” Killion writes. “The abuse exposed at the top levels of the sport has its roots in your kid’s travel team and local soccer club.”
Sally Yates, former U.S. Deputy Attorney General. Photo: Steven Senne / AP
“Abuse in the NWSL is rooted in a deeper culture in women’s soccer, beginning with youth leagues, that normalizes verbally abusive coaching and blurs boundaries between coaches and player... [Athletes are] conditioned to accept and respond to abusive coaching behaviors as youth players. By the time they reach the professional level, many do not recognize the conduct as abusive.” —SALLY Q. YATES’S INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION REPORT
As noted in our recent PIPSpeaks, youth sports are often breeding grounds for abusive behavior. Inappropriate coaching methods such as body shaming, pitting teammates against each other, grooming behaviors, unwanted touching and grabbing, sending explicit photos, and coercing sexual relationships are all situations detailed in the Yates Report. Those who report such transgressions are “systematically belittled, threatened, or ignored.” This has been true of youth gymnastics, soccer, volleyball, and so many other clubs and leagues. Just in the past few weeks, the LA Unified School District has been ordered to pay $52 million to youth victims who suffered horrific sexual abuse at the hands of a wrestling coach whose prior sexual misconduct went ignored by the district.
The Yates Report details numerous instances in which reports by victims went ignored by those at the highest levels of power in the sport. Abusive coaches continued unabated, or went on to even more powerful positions. “Two of the three coaches examined in the report had extensive ties to youth soccer and had received a litany of similar complaints before they rose to the professional level. All were ignored,” Killion reports.
“The Yates report does not pass its scalding subject matter. It holds on to the burning issue, revealing that in soccer—as in gymnastics and swimming and other sports—sexual misconduct and abusive behavior is pervasive and institutionalized.” —ANN KILLION, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
It's clear that many more changes are needed in women's soccer and other professional and youth sports. You can read about the actions that the Yates’ report recommends for NWSL here and in the full report.
UNDERSTANDING WHAT MAKES KIDS VULNERABLE
When children are involved in youth sports or other environments where abuse may be a risk, it's important for parents and caregivers to be aware of the key factors that may make a child more vulnerable to abuse. Sexual abuse does not happen because of a particular attribute of a child—it happens only because of decisions made by the person abusing. However, as adults, we can take steps in advance to help children who may be most vulnerable. The outstanding organization Stop It Now! has put together some critical points that can help us understand particular risk factors and situations to look out for that warrant extra protection for a child. This document can be viewed on their website or in our Resource Library. Find that resource here.
As parents, caregivers, and fans of sports, it is clear that we must insist that those who hold power in sports—from youth to elite level—must be held accountable and dismissed from all positions of power if they've committed or willfully ignored misconduct. It is our job to protect the players—from youth all the way to elite levels.
WE ARE COMMITTED TO BRINGING YOU RELEVANT FOOD FOR THOUGHT TO KEEP THE CONVERSATION ON CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION TIMELY.
