Jill Ellis has stepped down as president of San Diego Wave FC amid a tumultuous year for the club to become FIFA’s chief of football, a newly created role. The Wave and FIFA made dual announcements on Tuesday.
In her new role, Ellis — a two-time World Cup-winning coach — will work alongside Arsène Wenger, FIFA’s chief of global football development.
Ellis leaves San Diego as a club in a moment of major transition. The Levine Leichtman family, led by Lauren Leichtman and Arthur Levine, recently completed an ownership takeover of the team as it stumbled to a 10th-place finish one year after winning the NWSL Shield.
In a statement, Leichtman also said the Wave is in “the final phase of identifying a new head coach on the heels of a global search.” The Equalizer’s Dan Lauletta previously reported that former Arsenal coach Jonas Eidevall is the favorite for the job.
Former Wave head coach Casey Stoney was fired from the job in June despite leading the Wave to the best regular-season record in 2023. About a week later, former Wave employee Brittany Alvarado publicly posted allegations of a toxic work environment in San Diego and called for the removal of Ellis.
Several other former employees spoke out about poor working conditions, and in October, five former employees sued the Wave and the NWSL alleging multiple forms of discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation and wrongful termination. One of the employees, Jane Doe, said she was sexually assaulted in her early days working for the club. She did not report the alleged incident to the Wave until after her termination, which she alleged was wrongful.
Ellis filed a defamation lawsuit against Alvarado earlier this summer, alleging among other things that Alvarado falsified emails and then shared them publicly to defame Ellis and the club. Two prior NWSL investigations cleared the Wave of any wrongdoing.
NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said in late November, ahead of the league’s championship, that “universally, to the extent that there was any misconduct identified, it was actioned.”
“Across our ecosystem, our policies and our procedures are available to everyone – players, technical staff, employees,” Berman said. “And through our processes we investigate and take action on any complaints that are brought to our attention, and we remain committed to ensuring that those policies are enforced, and education exists for everyone to make sure that they know we are here to support them in all ways that they need.”
Multiple sources told The Equalizer that there has been major turnover in the Wave’s technical staff since the team’s season ended in early November. Last month, the Wave announced that Landon Donovan, who was one of two interim coaches following the firing of Stoney, would not return to the club.
The team’s sale, which valued the Wave between $113 million and $120 million, closed in October.
General manager and sporting director Camille Ashton, who Ellis hired in June, is the highest ranking remaining employee in San Diego on the technical side following the departure of Ellis, who oversaw much of the on- and off-field business.
“Under Jill’s leadership, the Wave set a standard of excellence as an expansion club in the NWSL. The new owners of the club are committed to building a culture of winning on and off the pitch,” Leichtman said in a statement.
In her new role at FIFA, Ellis will work on “key technical areas connected to the development of the game across the world,” FIFA said in a statement.
“I want to extend a huge thank you to the staff and players of the Wave for their profound commitment to the club,” Ellis said in a statement. “I wish the club and the Leichtman-Levine family the very best for the future. I would also like to express my appreciation to the City of San Diego for embracing the Wave so warmly into the community.”
