The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) has announced that they are handing out some harsh penalties to Angel City FC. League officials recently investigated issues with the club’s salary cap. According to an NWSL statement, the inquiry found that the team violated multiple league rules.
Angel City’s main breach in the league’s laws included offering side deals to five different players. These agreements, which were allegedly multi-year contracts, were not disclosed to the league. NWSL officials claim that the secretive deals involved both financial payments and other benefits. None of these moves were appropriately reported to the league, as should be the case with all contracts.
Because of the side deals, Angel City’s salary cap was not necessarily accurate. These unreported agreements were not going toward the spending limits of the club. Nevertheless, once finding out about the deals, the NWSL has since added the funds to the team’s official salary cap. As a result, Angel City exceeded this cap by around $50,000 each week for four weeks. This means that the team was over the salary cap by a total of $200,000.
Due to the breaches, the NWSL has fined Angel City the full $200,000. This, however, is not the biggest punishment for the team. Along with the hefty fine, the California club has also been docked three points in the standings as well. The deduction severely damages the team’s chances of making the 2024 NWSL playoffs.
Angel City was six points behind Bay FC for the final spot in the postseason. However, they are now nine points back of a place in the playoffs. Angel City also has a worse goal differential compared to the fellow Californian side. NWSL clubs each have just four matches remaining in the regular season. Angel City, who has yet to respond to the sanctions, travels to face the Seattle Reign on Friday.
Multiple Angel City executives have been suspended by the NWSL as well. Julie Uhrman, President and CEO, and Angela Hucles Mangano, General Manager, are banned from conducting normal business with the club for the remainder of the calendar year.
League officials also announced that they will be more investigative with all of their clubs regarding player contracts moving forward. “The NWSL remains committed to maintaining fairness and transparency across all clubs, reinforcing the importance of adhering to established rules, and upholding the competitive balance within the league,” said the league.
Angel City recently made headlines by becoming the most valuable women’s sports team in the world. The news came as celebrity duo Willow Bay and husband Bob Iger acquired a controlling stake in the club this past summer. The move reportedly valued Angel City at $250 million.
A journalist, Bay was previously a senior editor for the Huffington Post. Iger, on the other hand, is the current CEO of Disney. Actress Natalie Portman is also on the team’s board. Along with Bay and Iger, MLS side LAFC recently purchased a minority stake in the club as well. The two teams currently share a home stadium.
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