Megan Rapinoe and her teammates are “emotionally exhausted” after the release of the Sally Yates report into emotional and sexual abuse in the NWSL, but she added that the US women’s national team are used to shouldering off-field burdens.
“As sick as this sounds, I feel like we’re used to having to take on so much more than gameplan and tactics,” said the winger. “We’ve had to shoulder a lot on this team. I think we have a lot of experience, particularly with the older group, whether it was the lawsuit or equal pay, or kneeling or whatever it may be. I think we have a bit of experience in that and that older players can help shield and shoulder a lot of it, whether it’s media attention or just what we do, how to act.”
The vocal support from their opponents on Friday, England, has been very important to the US. “It means everything,” said Rapinoe. “Our women’s national team gets a lot of attention globally for things off the field but it’s all of us. In so many ways. Even just us watching their Euros run, you couldn’t help but want them to bring it home.
“To have them acknowledge what we’re going through [is huge]. As Lucy [Bronze] said, there’s no report that came out here [in England], but I’m sure that there could be one, just as there could be one in likely every single country, which is a really sad reality. But there’s just so much solidarity between the things that we have to fight for. Come the time, we will be competing on the pitch, but I feel like everything before that, we’re all fighting together for the same things.”
Accountability is “essential” following Yates’s report, said Rapinoe. “Those people are in positions that have responsibility, and they didn’t fulfil those responsibilities and they didn’t protect players at all. It’s year after year after year, it’s impossible to overstate that every single year someone said something about multiple coaches in the league, about multiple different environments so if, year after year after year, you cannot perform your duties … I know I wouldn’t be in my position if I couldn’t perform my duties year after year.
“[There needs to be a] signal to players that we’re being heard, and we are being respected and that action is being taken. The [NWSL] was set up in a way that got it off the ground and gave us a place to play and every player would say that we’re thankful and appreciative for that, but it was also done with absolutely zero guard rails and that’s just unacceptable for the future of the league.”
Rapinoe added that players have had a “lot of practice” at having to separate the bad from the good in their sport. She mentioned three coaches who were named in the Yates report as being guilty of abuse. “Rory [Dames] has been an asshole for the entire time I’ve known him, from the first second I heard him on the sideline the first season I ever played. Paul [Riley]’s the same. I didn’t know Christy Holly personally, but everything I heard about him was horrible.
“This week is a little bit harder to compartmentalise for sure, I think the Yates report was just devastating in every single way. Even when you know some of the information, just to read it plainly and have it spelled out like that, that is just horrible.”
Fifa too must do more to make women’s football safer, she added. “Obviously, that’s a monumental task and a lot of these federations that are funded really well only get together a couple of times a year. I know that can be difficult. But from Fifa’s standpoint, as the stewards of the game, they have a responsibility to do everything in their power to ensure that every player is in a safe environment.”
In the immediate future, the task for Rapinoe and her teammate is to find the joy in football again.
“It is possible this week,” said the double Olympic champion. “I feel like there’s a reason that we’re at Wembley right now, there’s a reason that 90,000 people are coming, there’s a reason that these two particular teams have stretched way past the field and done something really special. I feel like this is a really special moment in women’s football: I know it’s just a friendly but it does feel like more than that, I think it signals more than that; we should be really proud of that.
“We shouldn’t have to do this. We shouldn’t have to shoulder all that we have, but I think we’ve done it in a pretty amazing way and continue to grow the sport and we should be really proud of that and ultimately, have a great opportunity to play in front of a packed house.”
