NWSL – Page 8 – Women's Soccer Express

NWSL: Boston’s badly botched branding unveiling

The week of October 14, 2024, did not go as planned for the new Boston NWSL franchise.

NWSL News of Note: Merritt Mathias and Desiree Scott announces retirement, Alexa Spaanstra and Shae Holmes extend, Wave sale completed, Expansion update

This week, two long-time NWSL players, who both played in the NWSL’s inaugural season, Angel City defender Merritt Mathias and Kansas City Current midfielder Desiree Scott, announced their retirements.

Meanwhile, three players —Portland Thorns forward Alexa Spaanstra, Seattle Reign center-back Shae Holmes, and Orlando Pride forward Summer Yates — are set to stay in the NWSL through the 2026 season.

Also, Racing Louisville back-up goalkeeper Olivia Sekany has been loaned to the Brisbane Roar of the A-League until early March 2025.

In team news, the sale of the San Diego Wave from Ron Burkle to the family of Lauren Leichtman and Arthur Levine has been completed.

Regarding expansion, an article from Sports Business Journal has added Nashville and Philadelphia to the list of known bids in the hunt for the second 2026 expansion franchise.

Finally, the Red Stars are not the only professional soccer team in Chicago looking to build a new soccer-specific stadium.

NWSL: Angel City FC’s statement on disciplinary sanctions

On Monday, Angel City FC posted a statement via social media regarding the three-point standings deduction and other disciplinary sanctions imposed by the league in response to the club violating the salary cap and other league rules.

Angel City’s statement includes two major notables:

First, it appeared that childcare benefits were the (or at least one of the) “undisclosed benefits” which caused Angel City to exceed the salary cap.
Second, Angel City “formally requested a reconsideration of the three-point deduction” by the NWSL. However, the league “confirmed that, based on the totality of their findings, the sanctions stand as is.”

Additionally, Angel City claims to have had the understanding that “childcare payments [did] not count against the salary cap”, which is hard to square with the text of the NWSL Competition Manual.

Regarding the first notable, on Friday, a The 19th article revealed that only one of the undisclosed supplemental agreements covered childcare payments:

A league source told The 19th that child care payments were only part of the reason Angel City was over the cap and got sanctioned. Only one of the five side letters addressed additional child care payments; the rest of that side letter and the other four letters were for additional amounts covering other terms.

NWSL Referee Assignments: October 18 to 20, 2024

Friday, October 18th:

Reign vs. Dash: Brad Jensen (VAR: Alexandra Billeter)

Saturday, October 19th:

Current vs. Wave: Iryna Petrunok (VAR: Shawn Tehini)
Racing vs. Thorns: Calin Radosav (VAR: Kevin Broadley)
Bay FC vs. Courage: Elijio Arreguin (VAR: Corbyn May)

Sunday, October 20th:

Spirit vs. Red Stars: Adam Kilpatrick (VAR: Greg Dopka)
Gotham vs. Pride: Ricardo Fierro (VAR: Brad Jensen)
Angel City vs. Royals: Sergii Demianchuk (VAR: Abdou Ndiaye)

Source: PRO

NWSL News of Note: Dash sign U-18 midfielder Zoe Matthews, Olivia Wade-Katoa on SEI List, Bay FC sign midfielder Catherine Paulson

Friday’s notables all involve midfielders:

The Houston Dash signed 6’2″ midfielder Zoe Matthews under the U18 Entry Mechanism. Matthews is eligible to play for both Jamaica and the USA.
The Portland Thorns placed rookie midfielder Olivia Wade-Katoa is out for the rest of the season and will undergo knee surgery.
Bay FC signed Catherine Paulson for the remainder of the season. Paulson had been a National Team Replacement Player during Savy King’s absence.

NWSL: San Diego Wave organization sued by five former employees, League also named as defendant [Updated]

Update (9-January-2025): On October 31st, a sixth former employee joined the lawsuit. She is designated as “Jane Doe 2”, with the first anonymous plaintiff now designated as “Jane Doe 1”. See the “Update” section below for a summary of Doe 2’s allegations.

This week, five former employees of the San Diego Wave filed a joint lawsuit in California state court against the Wave organization, asserting fifteen different causes of action. The National Women’s Soccer League was also named as a defendant on an additional claim of negligence.

The sports news website Defector was the first to report on the lawsuit and has an article, written by Diana Moskovitz and Lesley Ryder, that comprehensively summarizes the complaint: “San Diego Wave, NWSL Sued For Team’s ‘Abusive And Hostile Work Environment'”. Additionally, Jeff Kassouf has a brief article about the lawsuit on ESPN.com: “San Diego Wave, NWSL sued by five former employees”. The original complaint can be viewed and downloaded using the following link: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25196836/sd-wave-complaint.pdf (via Defector).

NWSL News of Note: Andi Sullivan out with torn ACL, Frankie Tagliaferri leaves Royals, New role for Karina LeBlanc, Cleveland rumors

This week, the Washington Spirit placed midfielder Andi Sullivan on the season-ending injury list after she suffered a torn ACL in the Spirit’s match last Sunday against the Orlando Pride. In other player news, midfielder Frankie Tagliaferri is no longer with the Utah Royals.

Also, Portland Thorns general manager Karina LeBlanc will transition to a new position with RAJ Sports, which owns both the Portland Thorns as well as Portland’s new WNBA franchise.

Additionally, on Wednesday, NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman visited Cleveland, meeting with the Cleveland Pro Soccer organization and local leaders.

NWSL Referee Assignments: October 11 to 13, 2024

Friday, October 11th:

Thorns vs. Pride: JC Griggs (VAR: Corbyn May)

Saturday, October 12th:

Red Stars vs. Gotham: Greg Dopka (VAR: Alyssa Nichols)
Courage vs. Angel City: Eric Tattersall (VAR: Kevin Broadley)
Bay FC vs. Current: Danielle Chesky (VAR: Adorae Monroy)

Sunday, October 13th:

Spirit vs. Racing: Abdou Ndiaye (VAR: Greg Dopka)
Royals vs. Reign: Elvis Osmanovic (VAR: Elijio Arreguin)
Wave vs. Dash: Jaclyn Metz (VAR: Shawn Tehini)

Source: PRO

NWSL: Angel City salary cap investigation began after former ACFC player discussed supplemental agreement with their new club

On Tuesday, The Athletic published a write-up of a brief interview with NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman where she disclosed how the existence of Angel City’s “side letters” were initially discovered. According to the article, “one of [ACFC’s] former players signed with another team and brought up the existence of a supplementary agreement”, presumably with the new team. While The Athletic article does not have much in the way of new details, it does have some illuminating quotes from Berman.

Previously: Angel City FC fined $200,000 and docked 3 points for violating salary cap and other league rules

Regarding the “annual investigations and audits of player spending across clubs” mentioned in last week’s press release, Berman added that the league is “now going to proactively investigate and audit clubs on a random basis”. According to the article, in the past “the league routinely ask[ed] teams about their salary-cap compliance”, which, although not specified in the article, appears to be a reference to a requirement that multiple representatives from each team, including the “President”, “General Manager”, and “Head Coach” complete an annual “NWSL Team Player Compensation Compliance Affidavit”.*

In the interview, Berman reiterated that all player agreements must be disclosed to the league: “We have very clear rules… Any agreements that are not disclosed are by definition a violation of our rules.”*

NWSL: Angel City FC fined $200,000 and docked 3 points for violating salary cap and other league rules

Last week, the NWSL announced disciplinary actions against Angel City FC for violations of “multiple league rules”. According to the league, Angel City went over the salary cap “by approximately $50,000 for four weeks during the 2024 season”. Contributing to the salary cap overage were five “side letter” agreements with players which included some “excess benefits that were neither reported to the league nor included in the Standard Player Agreement”. The disciplinary actions announced by the league include a $200,000 fine, a deduction of 3 points in Angel City’s league standings, and partial suspensions for two members of Angel City’s front office: President/CEO Julie Uhrman and the general manager, Angela Hucles Mangano. (All quotes in this paragraph are from the league’s press release, which is reprinted later in this post.)

The NWSL’s disciplinary actions against Angel City should not be viewed as just for violating the salary cap. More significantly are the conclusions that Angel City failed to properly report the side letter agreements to the league.