Hope Solo talks to husband Jerramy Stevens before a match earlier this year. (Photo Copyright Denise McCooey/Prost Amerika
U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said the federation will speak with women’s national team goalkeeper Hope Solo and her representatives by Thursday afternoon regarding her recent arrest on charges of domestic-violence assault.
Gulati spoke on Wednesday in Recife, Brazil, at U.S. men’s national team training ahead of the team’s critical Group G finale against Germany on Thursday.
On Monday, Solo pleaded not guilty to two counts of domestic-violence assault. She was released without bail on personal recognizance. The U.S. national team and Seattle Reign FC goalkeeper is due back in court on August 11.
“We’ll be talking with Hope in the next 24 hours and her representatives, and I think it would be inappropriate for me to say anything else until some of these processes play out,” Gulati said during U.S. training at Arena Pernambuco, via the Associated Press.
Solo, 32, is accused of assaulting her half-sister and 17-year-old nephew, although her lawyer, Todd Maybrown, said Solo was the victim in the altercation. Police reports describe Solo as “intoxicated and upset” at the time of her arrest early Saturday morning in Kirkland, Wash.
Player conduct clauses are part of NWSL contracts, though it is unclear as to what Solo’s contract looks like and if it has the same language as the standard player agreement. The standard player agreement used league-wide includes the ability for the league to terminate a contract for certain breaches of contract.
Part of the standard player agreement states: “At all times during the Term of this Agreement the Player shall…comport and conduct herself at all times, both on and off the field, to a high standard of honesty, fair play and sportsmanship and in a manner befitting her position as a representative and promoter of soccer, the Team, NWSL and the League and comply with all applicable laws; and…refrain from conduct which is detrimental to the best interests of the Team or of NWSL.”
The standard player agreement clearly states that the league may terminate a contract “upon twenty-four (24) hours’ written notice to the Player” if she fails conduct herself “in a manner reasonably befitting” to the league and if a player “engages in alcohol or drug abuse or uses alcohol or drugs in a manner that interferes with her NWSL duties.”
Whether those stipulations appear in Solo’s NWSL contract remains unclear.
Seattle Reign FC are yet to comment on the situation other than a tweet Saturday that said they were aware of Solo’s arrest.
U.S. national team captain Christie Rampone was the first player to publicly comment on the situation, telling The Equalizer’s Dan Lauletta on Sunday that she too would reach out to Solo.
“Hopefully I can get a hold of her and get the true story,” Rampone said. “Last time wasn’t necessarily true so I can’t really believe what I read until I hear it from her mouth. So I’m just being patient and hoping for the best and waiting to talk to her.”
Solo’s husband, former NFL tight end Jerramy Stevens, was arrested right before the couple’s wedding in November 2012 for investigation of assaulting Solo, but all charges were dropped.
On June 14, Solo tied Briana Scurry’s U.S. shutout record with her 71st in a 1-0 win over France. Solo is 9-0-2 this season for Seattle, giving up nine goals in 11 matches for the first-place squad.
