Yates NWSL abuse fallout - Players, sponsors speak; execs fired

The aftershocks from the release Monday of the Yates Report into abuse in the National Women's Soccer League are still reverberating throughout the sport.

Not only have players on the U.S. women's national team reacted to the report's disclosures of systemic verbal, emotional and sexual abuse of the league's players, but fans, sponsors, domestic violence experts and politicians are speaking out about how to process this and move forward, particularly as it relates to the involvement of three teams at the heart of the investigation: the Chicago Red Stars, Portland Thorns and Racing Louisville.

— USSF report finds systemic abuse in NWSL — USSF president calls report 'first step' towards change

For years, the Red Stars organization persisted with Rory Dames as manager despite numerous complaints about his behavior. While the Portland Thorns fired Paul Riley back in 2015, it hid the reasons for his termination for years and even helped him find a new job. As for Louisville, it's hiring (and, for a short time, shielding) of Christy Holly cast it in a poor light, even as the club ultimately fired Holly for multiple incidents of Holly groping one of the team's players.

The fact that all three clubs engaged in tactics that either impeded or delayed the investigation, to varying degrees, was also a sore point with some of the game's constituencies. Late Tuesday, both Merritt Paulson of the Portland Thorns and Arnim Whisler of the Chicago Red Stars said they would be stepping aside until the joint NWSL/NWSL Players Association investigation was complete.

By Wednesday night, the Red Stars board of directors formally removed Whisler as chairman of the board, a move they said in a statement would «codify his removal from any further