After a 2021 season that revealed a culture of abuse in the National Women’s Soccer League, the offseason presented the league and its clubs a natural opportunity to at least partially eradicate the issues by replacing its perpetrators. A wave of coaching hires that will continue into 2022, though, has also allowed the league and its clubs to showcase other long-term strategies to create a safe workplace for players.
New hires are subject to the league’s new hiring policy, which an NWSL spokesperson told The Equalizer was adopted at the end of October. At the center of the new policy are a series of background checks, which the spokesperson said are now conducted by the NWSL and are more thorough. The checks include federal and state criminal records, a sex offense search, the US Center for SafeSport’s centralized disciplinary database, a civil litigation check, a liens and judgment search, a bankruptcy check, a social media and internet search, education and employment verification, and a watchlist and political exposure check.
