U.S. women’s national team and OL Reign star Megan Rapinoe has said Portland Thorns owner Merritt Paulson and Chicago Red Stars owner Arnim Whisler are not fit to be in their positions.
Paulson and Whisler have been under fire for their roles in the Yates report, with both owners taking steps back from their positions this week in the fallout from the investigation.
But neither has indicated at this point that they would look to sell their team, with Paulson also the owner of the Portland Timbers of MLS.
Rapinoe, speaking at a press conference ahead of Friday’s friendly against England at Wembley, has said that both Paulson and Whisler should not be part of the NWSL.
“Those people are in positions that have responsibilities and they didn’t fulfill those responsibilities,” Rapinoe said. “They didn’t protect the players at all. I feel like it’s impossible to overstate that every single year, someone said something about multiple coaches in the league and about multiple different environments. So if year after year after year, you cannot perform your duties — I know I wouldn’t be in my position if I couldn’t perform my duties year after year.”
Rapinoe added: “Without accountability and without people specifically who did the wrong thing being gone, that just says to us that nobody’s really hearing us. So obviously, the firings in Portland. We’ll see what happens with the management but I don’t think that Merritt Paulson is fit to be the owner of that team. I don’t think Arnim is fit to be the owner of Chicago. And we need to see those people gone.”
Rapinoe’s words came after her USWNT teammate Becky Sauerbrunn called for the dismissal of “every owner and executive and U.S. Soccer official who has repeatedly failed the players and failed to protect the players.”
On Wednesday, Paulson fired Gavin Wilkinson, the president of soccer for both the Portland Thorns and Portland Timbers, and the organization’s president of business Mike Golub.
Also. on Wednesday, the Chicago Red Stars board voted to oust Whisler from his position as Chairman of the Board.
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