- Former Portland Thorns head coach Rhian Wilkinson resigned after professing feelings for a player.
- The NWSL and NWSLPA joint investigative team cleared Wilkinson of all wrongdoing.
Yet another scandal is rocking the National Women's Soccer League.
Just a month after coaching the Portland Thorns to a title, Rhian Wilkinson resigned from her post because she "lost the locker room" over concerns regarding the nature of her relationship with one of the team's players. Though a joint investigation conducted by the league and the NWSL Players Association cleared the first-year head coach of any wrongdoing, a group of Thorns players still wrote a letter to NWSL executives requesting her ouster because the "trust in our locker room has been irrevocably broken."
According to reporting from The Athletic's Meg Linehan, Wilkinson reported herself to Portland's human resources department after she and longtime Thorns defender Emily Menges — who played alongside Wilkinson in Portland in 2015 — expressed romantic feelings for one another via text message during the 2022 season.
Though both parties, who spoke with Linehan on the record, admitted to spending one-on-one time together on several occasions, they insisted that there had been "no physical relationship" between them as player and coach.
NWSL policies prohibit 'romantic relationships or encounters' between players and head coaches — 'even when consensual'
For the first nine years of its existence, the NWSL didn't have official policies in place that explicitly banned harassment, fraternization, retaliation, or other forms of misconduct. But players began to pressure the league, and in the spring of 2021, the NWSL instituted its "Policy to Prevent and Eliminate Workplace Discrimination, Harassment, and Bullying."
Six months later, when an explosive, league-wide scandal broke with the revelation that the Thorns' front office had covered up an array of harrowing abuses perpetrated by then-head coach Paul Riley, the NWSL updated its policy considerably. That revamped version includes a new section outlining the "Additional Responsibilities of Supervisors Employed by NWSL" in which head coaches are explicitly designated as supervisors.
"NWSL Supervisors may not engage in, develop, continue, or pursue any romantic and/or sexual relationships or encounters (with members of either sex), even when consensual, with any employee (including NWSL players or trialists) over whom they currently have direct or indirect supervisory authority or management influence," the section reads. "Such relationships are strictly prohibited."
"Any failure by a Supervisor to meet these responsibilities or comply with these prohibitions," the policy continues, "will lead to disciplinary action against the Supervisor, up to and including termination of employment."
By Wilkinson's own admission in Linehan's report, the coach "reciprocated feelings" with Menges via text message. But even despite the league's anti-harassment policy that prohibits head coaches from engaging in, developing, continuing, or pursuing any romantic relationships or encounters — consensual or otherwise — with players, Wilkinson was "cleared of any wrongdoing" through the NWSL and NWSLPA's joint investigation into the matter.
"The NWSL/NWSLPA joint investigative team conducted a thorough investigation and concluded that no violation of the policy had occurred," a representative for the Thorns confirmed in a statement provided to Insider.
The league, players' association, and law firms leading the joint investigation did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment. Wilkinson also did not respond to Insider's requests for comment.
Menges insists 'no policies were breached' and that Wilkinson shouldn't have faced the 'massive repercussion' of resigning
Even despite her teammates' written concerns for her "personal safety" due to the "several potential power imbalances that are created when a coach fraternizes with a player," Menges has stood firm in her belief that she is not a victim in this scenario.
The 30-year-old insisted to the Athletic that there was "no imbalance of power" between herself and her former coach, who is 10 years her elder. But the NWSL's own anti-harassment policy states otherwise.
"Once a coach-player relationship is established, a Power Imbalance is presumed regardless of age," the document says under the Sexual Misconduct subcategory, adding: "Any romantic or sexual interaction between a player (or trialist) and an individual with supervisory authority (direct or indirect) involves a Power Imbalance and may be exploitative, impair judgment, and/or create an actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest."
Still, Menges told Linehan she elected "to put my name on this" so that the public understands that this was, in her words, "a very equal situation" between herself and Wilkinson.
"If you're going to believe players like we've been preaching for the last year — longer — then you can't just pick and choose which players you want to believe," Menges added. "You can't just believe players when they are actually victims, you have to believe players when they're not victims. There's no pick and choose situation."
But Menges' role on the NWSLPA executive team, which was instrumental in the broader joint investigation into misconduct across the league, further complicates the matter. Though the NWSLPA confirmed to Linehan that Menges served solely as a witness in the investigation into Wilkinson, the union also said Menges was allowed to continue serving in her NWSLPA leadership position because she was never accused of any wrongdoing.
Menges did not respond to Insider's repeated requests for comment.
The joint investigative report recommended changes to address such situations, but did not explain Wilkinson's absolution
On Wednesday, the NWSL and NWSLPA released their long-awaited report resulting from a 14-month joint investigation into the rampant coaching abuse across the entire league. Written by attorneys from Covington & Burling LLP and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP representing the league and the NWSLPA, respectively, the 125-page document detailed "widespread misconduct directed at NWSL players," an "underlying culture" that "created fertile ground for misconduct to go unreported," and failure among the "institutions meant to investigate and address misconduct" to effectively do so.
But the report also recommended dozens of changes to further protect NWSL players and employees, including specific methods to strengthen its anti-harassment policies. One such method involves adding a "Non-Fraternization Policy" to the league's existing anti-harassment policy.
Such a measure would serve to "clarify that any sexual or romantic relationship between players and those in supervisory roles over players is strictly prohibited, even if the relationship is consensual."
Later, in the report's section recommending the implementation of mandatory anti-harassment training for NWSL and club staff, as well as players, the joint investigative team suggests that such a training "should clearly instruct staff that electronic communications, including text messages, WhatsApp messages, and emails, must comply with, and are subject to, the Anti-Harassment Policy."
Still, the joint investigative committee only mentioned Wilkinson in the context of instances that "did not violate the Anti-Harassment Policy or other relevant standards."
"In October 2022, the Joint Investigative Team received a report that then-Thorns Head Coach Rhian Wilkinson had disclosed to the Thorns's HR director potentially inappropriate interactions with a player with whom she had formed a friendship," the report reads. "The Joint Investigative Team promptly conducted a thorough investigation and, based on the evidence, found that Wilkinson did not engage in wrongdoing or violate the Anti-Harassment Policy.
"Out of respect for player privacy," it continued, "this Report does not provide a detailed account of the evidence or findings in this and other instances where the Joint Investigative Team determined no misconduct occurred."