Threatened. Humiliated. Blacklisted. Inside the culture of fear that muzzled and penalized women who exposed abuse at Canada Soccer

For nearly two decades, Andrea Neil proudly represented her country on the soccer pitch. Off the field, she alleges, she saw financial impropriety within Canada Soccer and the coverup of sexual abuse.

She says she also saw something happen to those brave enough to speak out against Canada Soccer leadership: blacklisting, threats, ostracization and humiliation.

“I have personally experienced or witnessed people being threatened with legal actions, denied critical information to do their jobs appropriately, or denied work or financial opportunities as a means of punishment for coming forward,” said Neil, a former captain of the national team and a pioneer of Canadian women’s soccer.

Neil’s allegations are among those contained in a confidential report she co-authored and recently submitted to a parliamentary committee examining the national governing body of soccer in Canada. Neil is expected to appear before the committee on Monday.

The 70-page report highlights a culture of fear that has pervaded Canadian women’s soccer. A Star investigation has interviewed six women who were involved with Canada Soccer as players, managers or directors and say they were muzzled with the threats of reprisals. For the first time publicly, some are sharing their allegations of being blackballed or threatened with violence.

The fear of retaliation remains so strong that Neil’s co-author, a former youth player, has asked for federal whistleblower protection because they “genuinely fear” for their “safety and security” in speaking out against the sport’s leadership.

“We’ve seen how the people in charge of soccer in Canada have silenced those who dared ask for basic accountability,” she said in an interview. The Star has agreed not to publish her name.

“It’s a real fear for me and a potent question: what would they be willing to do to protect their power?”

For weeks, members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage have grilled Canada Soccer officials on alleged financial and governance improprieties. Last month, Canadian soccer legend Christine Sinclair excoriated the sport governing body leadership for overseeing a “culture of secrecy and obstruction.”

In a statement to the Star this week, Canada Soccer said it is in a “transitional period” that involves “reimagining” itself.

“The success of our national teams has taken us to heights that perhaps people didn’t even envision. With that success inevitably comes more public attention and scrutiny, and it’s important for us to live up to these new expectations,” it reads. “It’s time for Canada Soccer to view itself differently, to continue to push progress, and move beyond how it viewed itself historically.”

This reckoning for Canada Soccer is unfolding amid a steady drumbeat of public complaints, lawsuits and grievances from players and former players rippling through sport governing bodies across the country.

Harassment, abuse and sexual impropriety

In 2019, national-level player Ciara McCormack was one of the first to publicly criticize Canada’s governing body with a scathing post on her blog titled “A Horrible Canadian Soccer Story — The Story No One Wants to Listen To But Everyone Needs To Hear.”

It took her a decade to summon the courage to post it publicly, she says.

It details years of what she describes as harassment, abuse and sexual impropriety focused on former national-level coach Bob Birarda, who was convicted for sexual assault last year — nearly 15 years after concerns about his conduct were first raised and investigated by Canada Soccer.

“When you literally have people know that there’s a predator on the field and the most powerful people in soccer … knew and nothing gets done, you realize there’s a lot of people that have something to lose with the truth coming out,” she said. “There is fear of exposing something like that … There is a power dynamic to it.”

Six months after she posted the blog she decided to leave Canada. She now lives in Europe.

“I think it’s just easier to fight these things from afar,” she says. “I can’t speak freely about this stuff if I’m embedded in Canada … I feel safer not being in Canada.”

Stephanie Rushton, a former national team manager, also says voicing concerns about sexual exploitation by male coaches including Birarda in 2008 fell on deaf ears — and ended her career in soccer in Canada.

“I was told, keep your mouth shut,” she says, referring to other national-level coaches. “I was blackballed for speaking up and saying what really went on is, he was sexually harassing the players.”

After nine years as a provincial manager and national staff member at the 2008 CONCACAF women’s under-17 championship, her involvement with soccer in Canada was over.

“I was never invited to anything more with soccer in Canada, even though I had never had complaints against me,” she says. “I sort of went into depression. I was just so traumatized … This all has affected many people, including myself.”

Canada Soccer officials declined interview requests for this story, but issued a written statement saying the organization acknowledges it was “significantly under pressure, in a constant state of repair and transition, and unable to meet the full needs of its membership” when sexual harassment allegations first emerged in 2008.

Since then, it has “enacted measurable improvements” in policies and programs “to ensure greater accountability” in its ranks.

“There is always more to do … That work is well underway.”

The two whistleblowers who authored the new report say their fears of retribution also focus on two top former officials at Canada Soccer who are now senior figures within FIFA, the sport’s international governing body.

Former president of Canada Soccer Victor Montagliani is now president of CONCACAF, one of FIFA’s six continental confederations representing North and Central America and the Caribbean. He is also a FIFA vice-president.

Peter Montopoli, former general secretary of Canada Soccer, is COO for Canada FIFA World Cup 2026, an event that will be co-hosted by Canada, the United States and Mexico.

“It’s problematic that the federation has let so much power concentrate in two people,” the report reads. “Montagliani and Montopoli have dispensed with all the norms of governance, making them de facto kings.”

Neither Montagliani nor Montopoli agreed to be interviewed for this story.

In a written statement to the Star, Montagliani said that during his tenure as president, “a concerted effort was made to create a culture that brought people together with the ultimate aim of growing the federation on and off the field … I believe we made significant progress in achieving this.”

The statement also says Montagliani has “huge sympathy and empathy for any participant in the sport who was verbally or physically abused” but that he had “no individual role in relation to any allegations made about Bob Birarda.”

Montopoli issued a general statement through a spokesperson saying the executive committee of Canada Soccer immediately voted to suspend Birarda after learning of allegations of inappropriate text messages between Birarda and players and later terminated his employment.

“The (Canadian Soccer Association) acted in good faith” and “there was no evidence of a coverup,” it reads.

‘It was a very direct threat’

Some critics allege a more direct form of backlash for speaking out.

Amelia Fouques, a Quebec lawyer, says she faced removal from Canada Soccer’s board and threats of physical violence in 2015 for demanding greater financial accountability.

“I, as a board member, couldn’t even get the numbers,” she said in a recent interview. “(Other board members) said, ‘Amelia, why are you asking so many questions? Everybody else is OK with it.’”

She says that during a break in a heated board meeting where she asked for financial details that never came, another board member, Wendy Bedingfield, approached her and threatened her physically.

“It was a very direct threat,” she says. “And I took it very seriously.”

When the meeting resumed, Fouques says she told the board about the alleged threat and that she was going to call the police.

“They said, ‘Don’t do it, please’ … I went out and (Montagliani) came after me, saying, ‘Don’t do that. You have to think about the athletes.’ So I did not because I’m a mom. I would think about the young athletes and it was not about me.”

In a written statement, Montagliani’s spokesperson says all board members during his tenure as president (2012-17) were provided with financial information in advance of board meetings.

Following requests from Fouques for further financial information, Montagliani arranged for her to meet with the finance committee and the federation’s chief financial officer to answer any questions, the statement reads.

Fouques says: “It never happened. I asked for documents, evidence of the finances. That’s the role of board members. They never gave it to me.”

Montagliani’s statement also says he recalls being made aware of the verbal disagreement between two female board members, but says “it is false to suggest he told anyone not to report this matter to the authorities. He encouraged mediation between the two individuals as per (Canadian Soccer Association) policies relating to disputes.”

During that mediation, Bedingfield admitted to threatening to “choke” Fouques, according to the final mediation report. She said she apologized afterward and felt the matter was settled.

In an interview this week, Bedingfield said Fouques “tested my patience.”

“I got overly irritated and I said something … and it certainly wasn’t nice,” she said.

The mediator concluded the incident was “surprising” but that “we’re all human and mistakes are made.”

Fouques says: “(Montagliani) absolutely said not to call the police. I stand by that 100 per cent.”

The current parliamentary committee has focused on alleged financial improprieties including a controversial decision to hand over media and sponsorship rights for the men’s and women’s national teams to a private company called Canadian Soccer Business (CSB) in exchange for a flat payment of between $3 million and $4 million annually — a 10-year deal critics have called irresponsible as the organization struggles to support players financially.

Media and sponsorship revenues have become particularly valuable following the international success of Canadian national teams in recent years. The Canadian women, including Sinclair, won gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and sit sixth in the world rankings. The Canadian men, led by superstar Alphonso Davies, in 2022 made their first World Cup appearance since 1986 and have risen as high as 33rd in the world rankings since the CSB deal was signed in 2018.

In a recent appearance before the parliamentary committee, Canada Soccer’s general secretary Earl Cochrane told committee members the governing body wants to “modernize” the CSB agreement and acknowledged it regrets cuts it made this year to the women’s team program ahead of its appearance at the 2023 World Cup this summer in Australia and New Zealand.

“Recently Canada Soccer made some funding decisions for the operations of the women’s team that it thought would have minimal impact. We were wrong,” he said. “Those decisions were made with good intentions of controlling spending. But we should not have made those decisions that negatively impacted the women’s team.”

Cochrane has since agreed to leave the organization, an exclusive story first published by the Star’s Bruce Arthur on Thursday. His departure follows the resignation of embattled president Nick Bontis in February after a vote of non-confidence from the provinces.

Whistleblower protection

Seeking whistleblower protection or fearing to speak out are symptoms of a larger culture of silence in sports across Canada, says Rob Koehler, director general of Global Athlete, a Montreal-based international advocacy organization for athletes.

“Voices of dissent are not welcomed,” he says. “Athletes are scared to speak up. They’re afraid of retribution and the retribution is real.”

On March 23, more than 50 current and former Canadian fencers wrote an open letter to the country’s minister of sport alleging “a toxic culture and abusive practices within the Canadian Fencing Federation (CFF)” that continued for almost two decades because “fear of retribution has prevented us from speaking up and this forced silence has left us feeling complicit in our own abuse.”

In a $5.5-million civil claim filed in an Ontario court last year against Canada’s water polo governing body, four Canadian athletes allege similar mistreatment including “verbal abuse and a ‘climate of fear.’”

Jennifer Fraser, a Victoria, B.C.-based sports consultant and author of the Bullied Brain, says Canada Soccer is emblematic of a sporting culture in Canada that revolves around “protecting the status quo, kowtowing to the people with the money and the power, not speaking truth to power … because there’s a personal risk.

“There’s no legal protection for you. Our judicial system is constructed on how much money you have. Those with power and prestige have no requirement to halt abuse.”

The 2015 FIFA scandal

The end of Fouques’ role as a director at Canada Soccer was sealed when she decided to speak publicly about a 2015 FIFA scandal in which 14 senior officials and associates were indicted for alleged wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering.

“I don’t believe anymore in FIFA,” Fouques told the Star at the time. “It’s so deep down, this culture of non-transparence. I really believe that we need a new international soccer federation from scratch.”

She said similar things on social media, radio and the television at the time.

In response, Montagliani threatened Fouques with removal from the board in a November 2015 letter.

“You have been warned about your previous conduct on social media and also statements in the media,” it reads. “I confirm that the Board informed you, at this time, that governance policies require that (Canada Soccer) speak with one voice through the president or general secretary and that you should cease all further actions as these actions were in violation of your position as director of (Canada Soccer).”

The letter also alleged Fouques withheld information from the board about her “professional misconduct” stemming from obstruction of justice convictions prior to her appointment to the board in May 2012.

Fouques says the organization threatened her by digging up a legal case that detailed a private property dispute she had during her divorce. After returning home from holidays in 2010, she says a bailiff unexpectedly entered her home one day.

Fouques says the bailiff provided no paperwork. She refused to comply, leading to the charges, public records show.

“I said, I’m guilty of not letting the bailiff come in … because I was never notified,” she says.

After registering the plea, Fouques received an absolute discharge, public records show.

“It was a really private matter,” she says. “I perceived that as a threat.”

Because Fouques continued to conduct herself “in a manner that damages the reputation of (Canada Soccer) and the game of soccer,” Montagliani said in the letter that he would “speak about your conduct at the next board meeting” and noted that the board could “consider suspending your position.”

That’s what happened.

In a written letter dated Dec. 4, 2015, Montagliani informed Fouques the board suspended her “due to your breaches of the CSA governance policies.”

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