Portland did not drag.
The Portland Thorns and Timbers franchise announced on Wednesday that it has fired athletic director Gavin Wilkinson and business manager Mike Golub after allegations of "systemic" sexual abuse and assault in American women's soccer.
The decision comes a day after Merritt Paulson, the owner of the franchise which also includes the Timbers playing in the men's league (MLS), announced his retirement from management of the Thorns following the investigation report published Monday.
The 172-page report includes interviews with more than 200 North American League (NWSL) players and details multiple coaches' abuses, manipulation, bullying and retaliation against players.
Facts that include "comments with a sexual connotation, advances, unwanted touching and forced sexual intercourse" within the professional championship and even beyond, in structures dedicated to young people.
Wilkinson and Golub implicated by the investigation
The investigation, led by former US Attorney General Sally Yate, accuses Gavin Wilkinson of covering up sexual abuse allegations made against former Portland women's coach Paul Riley.
In an email sent in September 2015, Thorns player Mana Shim alerted him and Merritt Paulson to the repeated abuse she was being subjected to by Riley.
The latter was fired soon after by the club, but Wilkinson never mentioned the charges against Riley, when the New York Flash club contacted Portland to ask for references on the coach.
Thus, Paul Riley continued to train in New York until he was fired again last September after the accusations against him were revealed in the American media.
Mike Golub is charged with misconduct.
According to the investigation, in 2013 he asked Cindy Parlow Cone, then the coach of the Thorns and now president of the American Football Federation, “the list of things to do before sleeping with (her)”.
The dismissals of Wilkinson and Golub come a day after United States national team captain Becky Sauerbrunn on Tuesday called for the firing of any executive who participated, whether by action or inaction, in the systemic practice of sexual abuse and assault in American women's soccer.