How sport’s inertia puts women at risk
Emma Hayes put it best during her press conference on Saturday: “There’s no point in me saying it’s been a c--- week for women. It feels like it’s always a c--- week for women.”
She was responding to a question about sexual abuse news that rocked women’s football, and ground the top American division to a halt. But the truth is, Hayes could have been referencing a number of stories last week, about major institutions failing to protect women from male violence and abuse.
As the Metropolitan Police remain the subject of criticism following Sarah Everard’s murder, and women’s safety remains at the forefront of the public consciousness, the limelight was thrust on the handling of crises by two major sporting bodies.
Paul Riley, coach of the North Carolina Courage, stood accused of sexual coercion by two female players in the National Women’s Soccer League. Riley was sacked last week, and league commissioner Lisa Baird resigned as more stories of allegedly abusive coaches in the league crawled out of the woodwork.
Riley has denied the allegations but, led by the whistle-blowers and survivors who broke the story in The Athletic, the NWSL was blasted for its alleged inaction when the complaints were first raised.
Two-time World Cup winner Alex Morgan called it a “systemic failure” that allowed Riley to float from team to team across the top women’s division for over a decade, despite his alleged misconduct being reported to the league years ago.
It is not an unfamiliar concept in sport: prominent male coach or administrator is dismissed after an internal investigation found misconduct, but the team or organisation involved fails to make the details public.
It is how former Canada Under20s women national team coach Bob Birarda was dismissed by Canada Soccer, allowing him to continue to work in women’s football ahead of being charged with nine sex crimes. In gymnastics, it was how disgraced former doctor Larry Nassar continued to abuse young women and girls – including Olympians – despite his employers, Michigan
State University and USA Gymnastics, receiving warnings of his predatory behaviour.
This cycle is one of optics being prioritised over women’s safety. In all cases, it opens up the risk of further abuse.
The announcement, on Monday, that the Association of Tennis Professionals would finally be opening an internal investigation into allegations of domestic abuse against Alexander Zverev, though welcomed, was unequivocally belated.
Allegations first emerged against the Olympic champion and world No4 last year, when his exgirlfriend and former junior tennis player Olga Sharypova alleged he abused her physically and emotionally at the 2019 ATP Masters 1000 event in Shanghai. Zverev has denied the allegations, and procured an injunction in the German courts against them.
Meanwhile, the ATP does not have a domestic violence policy, in the way the NFL does for example, and said on Monday it had completed an independent report into safeguarding which would inform its creation of one. But in the intervening year, while it ummed and ahhed over an appropriate course of action, the men’s tennis tour was near silent on the issue and Zverev’s life has continued largely unaffected.
He even served as the face of the Atp-sanctioned Laver Cup last month, which featured the leading players on the tour in a Ryder Cup-style team tournament. The Laver Cup’s social media account reportedly spent much of the build-up blocking users who deigned to highlight the allegations hanging over Zverev. Former player and broadcaster Mary Carillo felt so disappointed with the organisers’ lack of response when she questioned his involvement that she stepped down from her role presenting the tournament.
The slow-moving response from the ATP shows a disregard for the safety of women at its tournaments.
Considering tennis is a sport which has teenagers competing in adult environments, and ATP events often share venues with the women’s tour, a potentially violent presence at the facilities should have been investigated and dealt with as quickly and thoroughly as possible.
The ATP aiming to set up a policy to combat abuse, and Fifa launching an investigation into the NWSL’S safety issues is progress. But it is the bare minimum.
Organisations need to be held to account for not taking male violence seriously.
The slowmoving response from the ATP shows a disregard for the safety of women at its events