'They didn't care': Former pro soccer players gave searing interviews detailing their coach's sexual abuse
- Two former professional soccer players gave searing TV interviews this week detailing sexual abuse.
- Sinead Farrelly and Meleana Shim allege longtime NWSL head coach Paul Riley sexually abused them.
- The US Soccer Federation revoked Riley's coaching license eafter a bombshell report in The Athletic.
Two former national professional soccer players gave searing TV interviews this week detailing the abuse they say they endured from longtime National Women's Soccer League head coach Paul Riley.
The NWSL - where the majority of the US Women's National Team players compete domestically - is currently in disarray following The Athletic's bombshell report outlining sexual abuse allegations against Riley.
"Big picture, our institution failed us - the system," former player Mana Shim told CBS News anchor Gayle King on Wednesday. "The people in power - not just the coach who abused us - but the leadership team that enabled him and allowed him to go coach elsewhere."
"I think it was just a total lack of leadership and accountability, and they didn't care," Shim added.
Shim and former player Sinead Farrelly have described grooming behavior from Riley, who they say capitalized on the players' youth, inexperience, and dependence on him as a coach to push the boundaries of their relationships during his time at the helm of the Portland Thorns.
"I was filled with fear every single day because I felt under the control of his manipulation," Farrelly told King. "And the lack of safety just makes it really difficult to show up and do my job and be who I am as a person."
That interview came just one day after Shim, Farrelly, and Orlando Pride forward Alex Morgan went on the "TODAY" show.
"The support and the validation of this story by everyone globally has just been, it has blown me away, and really has felt like it has given my pain purpose, and that has been a liberation for me that I have not been able to feel for almost 10 years," Farrelly told host Savannah Guthrie.
Former North Carolina Courage coach and two-time NWSL Coach of the Year Riley was widely regarded as one of the league's foremost coaching minds.
But behind the scenes, he was leveraging his position of power to lure players into his bed, coerce them into sex, and force them to kiss one another for his pleasure, The Athletic's Meg Linehan reported.
Riley has been fired from his head coaching position, and the US Soccer Federation revoked the 57-year-old's coaching license, citing his "repulsive, unacceptable" behavior.
Riley has denied the allegations, and the Courage could not be immediately reached for comment by Insider.
Meanwhile, the league took a brief hiatus from play over the weekend "to give everyone some space to reflect", and play is scheduled to resume on Wednesday.