An investigation has been opened into the technical staff of Bay FC, National Women’s Soccer League commissioner Jessica Berman confirmed on Friday.
The San Francisco Chronicle first reported on Friday that two former Bay FC players described the culture under head coach Albertin Montoya as “toxic.” The report also said the league was made aware of one formal complaint in which a player said she had experienced “bullying” by Montoya.
“A review is underway by an independent third party, and we’re very confident that the system we have in place will ensure that we surface the issues that need to be addressed, and that we’ll continue to work with all of our clubs, our technical staff and our players to make sure that we’re achieving our goal of creating a safe, healthy working environment,” Berman said.
The news comes just weeks after the NWSL reached a $5 million settlement with the attorneys general from New York, Illinois and Washington, D.C., to close ongoing investigations and compensate mistreated athletes following a wave of “systemic” abuse uncovered by a pair of reports conducted in 2022.
The settlement, which Berman referenced throughout answers to repeated questions about investigations and team cultures in a 25-minute news conference on Friday ahead of the new season, also requires the NWSL to provide the results of annual anonymous player surveys to the attorneys general.
Berman, who became commissioner in early 2022 and has a legal background, said on Friday that complaints being raised are a sign that the new system is working. She said multiple times that these procedures and inquires are “commonplace in most work environments.” She also emphasized that investigations do not equate to assumptions of guilt.
“You want to facilitate an environment where people can come forward without a predetermined conclusion that it means that there’s been a violation, that there’s going to be discipline,” Berman said. “Once you have an environment where people come forward and think that’s the assumption, it actually deters people from raising proactive concerns.”
Montoya was hired to be the first head coach of Bay FC ahead of its 2024 expansion season, emerging late in the process as the choice after a global search put forward other candidates.
Montoya is a respected coach in the Bay Area with decades of experience in the youth landscape, with additional experience in the NWSL and the now defunct WPS, where he won a league title. The Chronicle reported that Montoya has a long-standing relationship with Bay FC majority owner Alan Waxman through the Mountain View Los Altos Soccer Club, a top youth program in the Bay Area.
“I don’t actually think having familiarity or knowledge of a coach and his or her experience in the youth space is in and of itself a problem,” Berman said, referencing other work environments where familiarity plays a role in hiring.
Bay FC struggled through the early part of its expansion season before general manager Lucy Rushton abruptly resigned in June, less than halfway through the team’s first season. The team improved to make the expanded eight-team playoff field and narrowly lost in the quarterfinals.
Berman did not explicitly say whether the results of the investigation would be made public.
Last year, the San Diego Wave came under scrutiny after allegations from a former employee that the club, led by then team president Jill Ellis, created a toxic work environment. The Wave quickly refuted those allegations and a few weeks later, Ellis filed a defamation lawsuit. The league said after the fact that it had already concluded third-party investigations into the team and cleared it of wrongdoing.
Six former employees are suing the Wave and the NWSL for multiple forms of discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation and wrongful termination.
“On a case-by-case basis, depending on what we learn and what the situation is that we’re navigating, we have to make a judgment call about our macro goals and the specific circumstances that we have in front of us, and that’s what we’ll continue to do,” Berman said on Friday about the league’s choices around what to make public.
Bay FC also recently hired Graeme Abel as a head scout despite allegations of abuse in his most recent job as head coach of the University of Oregon’s women’s soccer team. A week after Abel was announced, and following significant backlash, he resigned from the role.
Abel had worked with Bay FC sporting director Matt Potter in several previous jobs, including at U.S. Soccer.
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