August 2 – Jill Ellis, former U.S. women’s national team coach turned football administrator with NWSL club San Diego Wave, has responded to allegations of having created a hostile workplace with a defamation lawsuit filed against the former employee who alleged she was an abusive boss.
NWSL side San Diego Wave FC, only in their third season of competitive action, have denied accusations that made against them and Ellis.
The US women’s game is only just emerging from a series of sexual harassment and gender inequality scandals that have forced a rethink of how the game is coached and managed, and by whom.
The accusations are a body blow to a club that has been at the forefront of establishing a new way forward.
In her suit, Ellis says the club’s former videographer Brittany Alvarado used a fake email account to bolster her claims about Ellis. Three other San Diego Wave employees also came forward complaining about the workplace culture at the club.
In July the club said in a statement: “San Diego Wave FC has been made aware of a recent social media post by a former employee that contains inaccurate and defamatory statements about the club. Not only does the post contain a fabricated email, but the claims made therein are categorically false, including the ones directed at our President Jill Ellis.”
Earlier in the year Alvarado complained to the NWSL about Ellis and the club but the league said that it had found no violation of NWSL policy or the law.
Ellis’s complaint centres around what she says are fabricated accounts made to support Alvarado’s allegations.
In her filing she says Alvarado “knowingly included Ellis in the False and Defamatory Statements, despite not making any allegations against Ellis in her earlier anonymous complaint to the League, and did so to capitalize on Ellis’ renown, intentionally expand the reach of her False and Defamatory Statements, and magnify the injuries that those statements would cause to Ellis.”
The complaint says Ellis has lost several speaking engagements and an honorary degree from a “prestigious university” since the allegations were revealed.
On July 3 Alvarado had posted: “On behalf of myself and my former colleagues, the treatment we endured under club President Jill Ellis has been nothing short of life-altering and devastating to our mental health.”
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