Whistling Past the Graveyard - (idiomatic, US) To attempt to stay cheerful in a dire situation; to proceed with a task, ignoring an upcoming hazard, hoping for a good outcome. To enter a situation with little or no understanding of the possible consequences.

The Women’s Independent Soccer League was announced on April 8, 2021. An offshoot of the National Independent Soccer Association, WISL was headed by Managing Director Carrie Taylor. The initial announcement stated “It is a league created by women for women.” As a Division II professional soccer league, WISL noted that sanctioning from the USSF would determine when WISL would begin play but that the league was targeting to start in 2022. The announcement quoted Taylor saying that “[i]n the coming weeks we’ll be announcing independent clubs as they join the movement and become members of WISL.”

Following a stint as assistant coach for the San Diego Loyal S.C.Taylor joined Club 9 Sports during the winter of 2020-21. That company is a subsidiary of Prometheus Capital, John Prutch’s investment banking firm. Prutch serves as managing partner of Prometheus Capital as well as commissioner of the NISA Division III professional league. Prior to its launch in the fall of 2019, NIS was a client of Club 9 Sports, a sports industry consulting service. Prutch became an investor in NISA and was named commissioner starting in May of 2019.

During that winter, Taylor was brought into the Club 9 Sports and NISA fold as managing director of an alliance between NISA and the amateur United Women's Soccer league to launch a new women’s professional league. The “UWS Pro” league was announced on February 4, 2021 and sought to fill the professional void underneath the Division I National Women’s Soccer League.

In a February 8, 2021 interview with Elisabeth Schendel for Protagonist, Taylor states “that diversity is very special to me. It’s very important to me and being a white woman, I understand the privileges that I’ve had and I have to do my best to make sure that EDI structures are in place…let’s say we do get sanctioning, the makeup of this league, of the front office, needs to look like the United States.”

At the same time, Carrie Taylor was named COO for the NISA team, Stumptown AC. Prior to that the club had been known as Stumptown Athletic. That team had taken part in the 2019-20 NISA season but went on hiatus for the Fall 2020 season. That winter the NISA organization took over the team and relaunched it as a league-run team for the spring 2021 season.

Roughly six weeks later, in mid-March, Club 9 Sports, with its investor group, and UWS ended their affiliation. Club 9 Sports continued its plan to develop a new Division II women’s league which was announced as WISL a few weeks later. Taylor juggled the roles of managing director of WISL and COO of Stumptown AC through the spring soccer season.

On April 16, 2021, the Los Angeles Force was announced as the first club to officially join WISL. The Force has been a member of the NISA league since its launch and its president, Bob Friedland, is a main investor in the NISA organization. The announcement mentioned that WISL expected to announce more club applications in the coming weeks and planned to apply to the USSF for Division II sanctioning by September in order to begin play in 2022. No further club announcements were made.

On May 19, 2021, WISL released an announcement that Carrie Taylor would be leaving her role with Club 9 Sports guiding the development of WISL and that the “League is actively looking at a few strong candidates as her successor.” Taylor continued with the Stumptown AC team as COO and assistant coach through the spring season. The team’s last match was a 0-0 draw with Michigan Stars on June 25 at the Matthews Sportsplex. Soon after, Taylor parted ways with Club 9 Sports and Stumptown AC.

Following Taylor’s departure from WISL in mid-May, little to nothing was heard from the league until NISA announced a newly-created National Competitive Soccer League. According to the announcement, the NCSL would be the youth system for an affiliation between NISA, U.S. Specialty Sports Association, and WISL.The announcement targeted 2022 as when the NCSL would begin play.

WISL did not receive USSF sanctioning in the fall of 2021 to begin play as a professional league in 2022. In fact, it is unknown if an application was made for such sanctioning.

Information about the WISL was, for all intents and purposes, nonexistent for over a year until last month. On September 22, 2022, the WISL announced that Lynn Berling-Manuel had been appointed as managing director of the league. Berling-Manuel had previously been the CEO of United Soccer Coaches stepping down at the end of 2021 after a near seven-year stint as head of the organization. She had also been the editor-in-chief and CEO of Soccer America for over 20 years.

The announcement states that the league is applying to the USSF for Division II professional sanctioning and to start play in 2024. In addition, it notes that “WISL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Equality Football and is not affiliated with the World Surfing League (WSL).” Equality Football, LLC and the Association of Surfing Professionals LLC d/b/a World Surf League are currently in litigation concerning WISL’s application for a trademark.

The statement from WISL released yesterday via social media.

Yesterday morning the WISL issued a statement on the independent investigation headed by Sally Yates into player abuse in women’s professional soccer released on Monday. The release says that the WISL “is saddened and troubled by the often-horrific findings of the independent investigation…”

The WISL’s press release is an audacious statement. The second paragraph begins with the declaration: “This is an epic battle.” It notes that “a culture change must take place in the hearts and minds of everyone involved…”

The third paragraph then begins: “We have done just that at WISL. It is a mission-driven professional Division II league with cultural values that are made concrete through specific actions.” Given how little the WISL has done publicly in almost two years, it is not known what actions that WISL is talking about. From public announcements, the WISL has one employee, just a few weeks on the job, and one member team, which has yet to be organized.

(Editor’s note: the statement on Twitter does not allow replies.)

WISL’s corporate entity, Equality Football, LLC, was formed as a Delaware entity on February 18, 2021. Although details are not known, it is understood that Equality Football is controlled by those in charge of NISA. For example, Equality Football’s address in the Trademark Electronic Search System database is the same as National Independent Soccer Association, LLC’s handful of filings in that system. In addition, the trademark attorney on record for NISA, LLC and Equality Football, LLC is the general counsel for the Kittrich Corporation, whose president and CEO is Bob Friedland.

NISA is a Division III professional men’s league. During its three-year existence, it has had a number of high-profile organizational struggles. Given that WISL is controlled by main members of the NISA corporate leadership, it would seem a bold statement from either organization that WISL has brought about the changes necessary as outlined by the Yates report.

That report ended with “a series of recommendations aimed at preventing abuse in the future, holding wrongdoers accountable, enhancing transparency, and fostering a professional environment where players are treated in respect.” Given the WISL’s full-throated statement that they “have done just that at WISL,” it would be fair to expect that the league will in due time outline the “specific actions” they have taken to back up such a statement. What concrete steps has WISL taken in regards to transparency disclosing misconduct, holding wrongdoers accountable, conducting rigorous and timely investigations, and adoption of clear rules, policies and codes of conduct?

WISL should be able to point to an individual in the league and its member club who is designated as responsible for player safety. WISL should have current capital requirements sufficient to ensure it and its club owners are financially committed to the league. The league should be able to show that it and its current club has a full-time staff year-round. The WISL should be able to show that it has implemented a system to solicit and act on player feedback. The league should have policies stating that it will not rely exclusively on SafeSport to keep its players safe. The WISL should be actively working with the USFF to determine how to most effectively implement measures to keep its players safe.

If the WISL can show most of these actions it has already taken then it should be proud of the work it has done to make a positive culture change in women’s professional soccer. Otherwise, the press release feels more like an opportunistic marketing exercise timed to promote a company barely starting to get off the ground.

- Dan Creel