Angel City was hit by several penalties Thursday after an investigation by the Women's National Soccer League determined that he had violated the wage ceiling of the league.
Angel City was sentenced to a fine of $ 200,000, received a three -point deduction in the ranking and president Julie Uhrman And the director general Angela Hucles Mangano was suspended from any task linked to the transactions of the players for the rest of the calendar year 2024.
The penalties intervene after NWSL determined that Angel City concluded five lateral letters agreements with players in 2023 who were not disclosed to the League. These agreements included a combination of remuneration and benefits which led to the exceeding of the salary ceiling of $ 2.75 million of around $ 50,000 for four weeks during the 2024 season, according to the NWSL.
The names of the players and other details on the agreements have not been disclosed.
The three-point deduction abandoned Angel City (6-12-4) to 12th in the 14-team table with 19 points, which leaves him four places and nine points of playoff posts with four games to play, paralyzing the thin hopes of the team in playoffs before Friday's match with the reign in Seattle.
Penalties are the last blow of what was a tumult season for the richest franchise in the history of professional sport of women. In July, Willow Bay, dean of Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the USC, and her husband, the CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, Bought controlling participation in the teamBuilding its valuation at 250 million dollars, according to Sportico.
This followed months that the Wall Street Journal called “Intestine struggles, politics and power” among the team owners, including the main investor Alexis Ohanian, who was vocal both in his opposition to some of the team's spending decisions and in his desire for new leadership.
At the same time, the team suffered on the field, without ever winning more eight games in a season and making the playoffs only once while being sanctioned several times for breaking the rules of the NWSL.
In 2021, before the team played a match, he was sentenced to a fine of $ 20,000 in cash and $ 20,000 for allowing the falsification policy of the League. Earlier that year, he was also sentenced to a fine of an undisclosed amount to announce the signing of the Christen press before the contract was approved.
Uhrman, one of the three owners of the team, was sentenced to a fine to “approach the officials” after a match at the start of last season. In 2022, former Eni Aluko sports director was sentenced to a fine and suspended to have entered the field during a match.
