Paul Riley (born 23 September 1963) is an English former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and coach. He spent his entire professional playing career in American leagues, including the

American Professional Soccer League The American Professional Soccer League (APSL) was a professional men's soccer league with teams from the United States and later Canada. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of the third American Soccer League with the Western Soccer League. It ...

and the

USISL United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues currently organized are the ...

. He has been a coach, mostly of women's teams, since the 1990s. In 2021 he was accused of sexual misconduct and mistreatment of players that spanned over a 10-year coaching period.

Playing career

Youth

In 1982, Riley came to the United States to attend

Adelphi University Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York. Adelphi also has centers in Manhattan, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County. There is also a virtual, online campus for remote students. It is the oldest institution of higher ed ...

. From 1982 to 1985, he played on the

Adelphi Panthers The Adelphi Panthers are the athletic teams that represent Adelphi University, located in Garden City, Long Island, New York, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The university fields 23 varsity sports programs, and the Panthers compete ...

men's soccer team. In 1999, Adelphi inducted Riley into the school's Hall of Fame.

Club career

After graduation, Riley became a manager, but in 1988, he turned professional when he joined the

Albany Capitals The Albany Capitals joined the third incarnation of the American Soccer League in 1988. The team joined the American Professional Soccer League in 1990 when the ASL merged with the Western Soccer League. The club played in Albany, New York. After ...

of the American Soccer League. The Capitals did not renew his contract at the end of the season and Riley moved to the

New Jersey Eagles The New Jersey Eagles were an American soccer team founded in 1987 as the Cosmopolitan Eagles. In 1988, they entered the third American Soccer League as the New Jersey Eagles. They folded following the 1990 American Professional Soccer League s ...

for the 1989 and 1990 season. In 1990, the Eagles played in the

which had been formed by the merger of the American Soccer League and the

Western Soccer League Western Soccer Alliance was a professional soccer league featuring teams from the West Coast of the United States and Western Canada. The league began in 1985 as the Western Alliance Challenge Series. In 1986, it became the Western Soccer Alli ...

. Riley was 1989 All League and 1990 Second Team All League. In 1991, Riley moved down to Glen Cove of the New England Professional Soccer League. Glen Cove won the league championship as Riley was named MVP. In 1992, he again moved, this time to Hercules, again winning the NEPSL title. In 1993, he played for New York Atlas. In 1994, Riley returned to professional soccer with the expansion

Long Island Rough Riders The Long Island Rough Riders are an American soccer team based in South Huntington, New York, United States. Founded in 1994, the team plays in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. The team plays its home games at Hofst ...

of the

. In 1995, Riley and his teammates won the league title. When he retired at the end of the 1997 season, Riley held the team's all-time career record for assists.

Coaching career

In 1986, Riley began his coaching career when CW Post hired him as an assistant. In 1990, Riley became head coach at CW Post, a position he held until 1997. Over his eight seasons as head coach, he compiled an 88–49–13 record. In 1997, Riley became the head coach of the Long Island Rough Riders, in addition to his duties as a player with the Rough Riders and head coach of CW Post. In 1999, Riley was named the USISL A-League Coach of the Year. In 2002, the Rough Riders moved down to the

USL D3 Pro League The USL Second Division (commonly referred to as USL-2) was a professional men's soccer league in the United States, operated by United Soccer Leagues (USL). It was at the third tier of soccer in the United States, behind Major League Soccer ...

, winning the league championship that season. His last season with the Rough Riders came in 2003. Over the years, Riley was involved with the Albertson Fury Soccer Club. In 2006, Riley became the head coach of the

Long Island Fury Long Island Fury is an American women’s soccer team, founded in 2005. The team is a member of the Women's Premier Soccer League, the second tier of women’s soccer in the United States and Canada. The team plays in the Mid-Atlantic Division of ...

of the

Women's Premier Soccer League The Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) is an amateur women's soccer league in the United States and Canada. It is the top amateur league for women's soccer in the United States soccer pyramid, below only National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). T ...

. The Fury was part of the Albertson Fury Soccer Club. Riley coached the Fury through the 2008 season. In September 2009, the

Philadelphia Independence The Philadelphia Independence was an American professional soccer club that was based in the Philadelphia suburb of Chester, Pennsylvania. The team joined Women's Professional Soccer as an expansion team in 2010 and played its home games at West ...

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 sea ...

hired Riley as the team's first coach. Riley was selected as the 2010 WPS Coach of the Year. In 2011, he took the team to the championship where they fell in penalties to the

Western New York Flash The Western New York Flash (WNY Flash) was an American soccer club based in Elma, New York that competed in the United Women's Soccer league. They have won league championships in four different leagues: the USL W-League in 2010, Women's Profess ...

. Riley was also named 2011 WPS Coach of the Year. On 12 March 2012, following the collapse of WPS, Riley was named head coach of the

New York Fury New York Fury was a semi-professional American women’s soccer club playing in the Women's Premier Soccer League Elite, the top tier of women’s soccer in the United States in 2012. It was part of the Fury Soccer Organization which also supports ...

in the

. In 2013, Riley was named head coach of the

Portland Thorns The Portland Thorns FC is an American professional women's soccer team based in Portland, Oregon. Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), which receives support from the Unit ...

in the newly formed top-division

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

. After leading the team to a 16–17–11 record and one playoff appearance over two seasons, but finishing the 2015 season in sixth place, the Thorns declined to renew Riley's contract. On 19 February 2016, Riley was announced as the head coach of the WNY Flash of the National Women's Soccer League. On 9 January 2017, the National Women's Soccer League announced that the WNY Flash franchise would be relocated to North Carolina. Riley was officially hired as head coach of the relocated club, now called the

North Carolina Courage The North Carolina Courage is a professional women's soccer team based in Cary, North Carolina. It was founded on January 9, 2017, after Stephen Malik acquired National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchise rights from the Western New York F ...

, on 30 January. The Courage finished in first place during the 2017 regular season with a record, winning the

NWSL Shield The NWSL Shield is an annual award given to the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) team with the best regular season record as determined by the NWSL points system. The NWSL Shield has been awarded annually since 2013 and is recognized as a ...

and advanced to the

Playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

. The game that clinched the NWSL Shield for the Courage was a 4–0 win over Houston Dash. In

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

North Carolina finished in first place and won the NWSL Shield for the second consecutive season with a record. On 22 September, the Courage won the

NWSL Championship The National Women's Soccer League Playoffs (or NWSL Playoffs) are a single elimination tournament among six teams in the National Women's Soccer League of the United States, deciding the winner of the NWSL Championship. Since playoff games cann ...

3–0 over the Portland Thorns, the first time the Courage had won the title. In the 2019 season, the Courage finished in first place with a record, winning the NWSL Shield for the third consecutive season. After defeating

Reign FC OL Reign is an American professional women's soccer team based in Seattle, Washington. Founded by Bill and Teresa Predmore in 2012 as Seattle Reign FC, it was one of eight inaugural members of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). In 2020, ...

4–1 in the semi-finals, the Courage won their second NWSL Championship shutting out the Chicago Red Stars 4–0 in the final.

Misconduct allegations

A September 2021 report by ''

The Athletic ''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports website that provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories from top professional and college sports ...

'' alleged that Riley had sexually coerced and verbally abused players on his teams, specifically during the time period between 2011 and 2015 (consisting of his time in WPS, WPSL, and NWSL). In the article, Riley denied the allegations. The article also stated that NWSL failed to act on Riley's alleged abuses multiple times, including earlier in 2021 when the league declined to act on an offer from two of Riley's alleged victims to assist in investigating Riley's alleged abuses. On 30 September 2021, the Courage announced that Riley had been fired due to "very serious allegations of misconduct". The

released a statement the same day citing that some of the incidents occurred during Riley's two-year tenure as head coach of the Thorns in 2015 and discussing their reaction to the incidents at the time. On 1 October 2021,

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

announced they were opening an investigation into the allegations. The

United States Soccer Federation The United States Soccer Federation (USSF), commonly referred to as U.S. Soccer, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the official governing body of the sport of soccer in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, the federation is ...

suspended Riley's coaching license the same day. Concurrently, NWSL games were canceled that weekend and NWSL commissioner Lisa Baird (who had stated she was referring the matter to the

United States Center for SafeSport The United States Center for SafeSport is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established in 2017 under the auspices of the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017. SafeSport is tasked with ad ...

for investigation) and general counsel Lisa Levin resigned. On 3 October, the US federation also hired former acting

United States Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

Sally Yates Sally Quillian Yates (born Sally Caroline Quillian; August 20, 1960) is an American lawyer. From 2010 to 2015, she was United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. In 2015, she was appointed United States Deputy Attorney General b ...

to investigate the claims.

Honours

Manager

Long Island Rough Riders *

USISL D-3 Pro League United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues currently organized are the ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

Western New York Flash *

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

North Carolina Courage *National Women's Soccer League:

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Individual *WPS Coach of the Year: 2010, 2011 *NWSL Coach of the Year: 2017, 2018

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, Paul 1963 births Living people Adelphi Panthers men's soccer players English footballers English expatriate footballers English expatriate football managers Des Moines Menace players Albany Capitals players American Soccer League (1988–89) players American Professional Soccer League players Long Island Rough Riders players New Jersey Eagles players USISL coaches USISL players Women's Professional Soccer coaches Portland Thorns FC coaches Western New York Flash coaches Association football midfielders English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States National Women's Soccer League coaches Association football controversies North Carolina Courage coaches