U.S. soccer president tells CNN more misconduct cases reported
The U.S. Soccer Federation is investigating a total of 38 cases of alleged misconduct in the U.S. women’s national team programs since the team was reinstated in the 2018 Women’s World Cup, U.S. Soccer President Carlos Cordeiro told CNN.
“We have had a lot of cases that have come through in the last 12, 13, 14 months that are now being thoroughly investigated,” he said. “We will find out what actually happened. You have to look at both sides of the story and be able to put your finger on it when you go about your job, and it will be thoroughly investigated and then we will make a decision as to what those outcomes will be.”
Cordeiro has been working on strengthening the women’s team for almost a year now. He said the team is “really the backbone of our program,” in part because of the work it does.
“That’s one of the things we are trying to do is build our program in part to increase the ability for us to have the presence that we want so that we can make sure they have the programs and the resources that they need to be successful,” Cordeiro said. “It has to start, but the more time we go into this, the more we will be able to see how that is being done or not being done.”
The probe was launched after the United States lost to Germany in the World Cup quarterfinal, according to Cordeiro. According to U.S. Soccer, all the cases are still ongoing, and they want the women’s team to continue to earn its spot at the 2018 World Cup.
“We fully anticipated it. We had a very good relationship with the Federation and we have worked with the federation. We have worked with the federation going back to 2012,” he said. “They have never given us cause for concern. What has happened in recent months is that we have had more cases that come to us, but that doesn’t mean that there is necessarily a problem.”
U.S. soccer and the U.S. Women’s National Team have been rocked by scandal over the past year.
Last month, former U.S. national team