In her first public comments since resigning from her position, former National Women's Soccer League commissioner Lisa Baird remained steadfast she did her job to the best of her ability despite the league's players alleging she ignored their claims of abuse within the NWSL. According to ESPN, Baird said in the E60 special, “Truth Be Told: The Fight For Women's Professional Soccer,” coming out Tuesday night that, “If something was brought to me, I followed up on it.”
Her statements come after the U.S. Soccer Federation released the findings of its report on Oct. 3 detailing the allegations of league-wide abuse across the NWSL. Baird resigned as commissioner of the league after The Athletic uncovered the misconduct from former Portland Thorns head coach Paul Riley. Two investigations followed, one by U.S. Soccer and one by the NWSL and its players' association, after more allegations came out against higher level executives and coaches in the league.
ESPN reported Baird said in the E60 special, “I could second-guess myself a lot. I've had a lot of time to reflect on this. I'm sure there are things that I could do differently. I think, right now, I made the best decisions I could with the information I had at the time.”
The Athletic's reporting from 2021 paints a different picture, as two former Thorns players, Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly, brought allegations of sexual misconduct to the team regarding Riley's actions. Riley was later hired by two other teams before the North Carolina Courage fired him after the players' allegations were made public. Lisa Baird was not the NWSL's commissioner at the time, but Alex Morgan shared a thread on Twitter of an email exchange she had with Baird.
(1/3)The league was informed of these allegations multiple times and refused multiple times to investigate the allegations. The league must accept responsibility for a process that failed to protect its own players from this abuse. https://t.co/KDRBhhVBcT
— Alex Morgan (@alexmorgan13) September 30, 2021
After the U.S. Soccer Federation's report was released yesterday, the United States Women's National Team released a statement on its findings.
Statement from the USWNTPA regarding the King & Spalding / Sally Q. Yates’s Independent Investigation Report:
Learn More: https://t.co/87ojmCt5GE pic.twitter.com/YQJmgsU5iF
— USWNT Players (@USWNTPlayers) October 3, 2022
Stay tuned for more on this scandal.
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