Chief coach Albertin Montoya will continue to lead Bay FC while preparing for his first game of the NWSL season on March 15 despite the fact that Montoya is the subject of an investigation into the completion of the club coaching staff.
At least two formal complaints were filed against Montoya in 2024, accusing him of promoting a toxic workplace and a bullying. Eight players of the 2024 season, Bay’s inaugural campaign, are no longer with the team due to Montoya’s behavior, according to San Francisco Chronicle. The League announced the independent third party investigation shortly after the Chronicle Research Report was published.
“He is currently the chief coach,” said a spokesman on Friday during an interview with Bay CEO, Brady Stewart and Coo Jen Millet in New York. “We are going through the investigation and we will do what we need to do. We don’t have a moment.”
According to the reports of the chronicle, the first complaint against Montoya was presented during the summer and reached the property, as well as other club leaders. The second was carried out after the conclusion of the 2024 season through NWSL anonymous report mechanisms.
Stewart confirmed that he saw the first complaint and supported Chronicle’s report that the club hired a third party to investigate the claim. Stewart said that “there was no evidence” of the accusation of intimidation filed against Montoya and, when asked about his current work state, he described the root cause of the complaint as a communication problem.
“I think it is important to keep in mind that these problems that have been raised are related to communications challenges,” Stewart said. “Of course, the league is investigating this, as you saw [Friday] Tomorrow, and we will cooperate absolutely with the League and support any recommendation of the League. “
The player who presented that complaint “felt led by personal comments led by Montoya towards her during the review meetings” and “began to suffer anxiety attacks on the idea of going to train,” according to the chronicle.
Instead of any obvious disciplinary action, Bay instead “provided [the coaching staff} with resources to improve” their communication skills, Stewart said, and the resources included executive coaching and expertise in one-on-one interactions. The second resource corresponds directly with the results of a mandatory league-wide midseason survey, which found that “some players have requested one-on-one meetings that have been denied,” per the Chronicle.
Stewart said they only learned of the second complaint this week after the Chronicle reached out the club for comment and said the club does not have access to reports filed through the NWSL.
The investigation into Montoya’s conduct comes just a week after Graeme Abel, a former U.S. women’s national team assistant coach, resigned as the team’s scouting director. Abel was hired only a week earlier, but the announcement of his employment brought attention to abuse allegations against him while he was the women’s soccer coach at the University of Oregon. The Oregonian published a report on the topic in April 2024 in which Abel was accused of “throwing objects, harsh language, and threats to kick [players] outside the team or revoke your scholarship. “
The accusations against Montoya and Abel have forced questions about the practices of hiring and safety of Bay players, and potentially those imposed by the NWSL. Bay officials chose not to answer a question about whether Oregonian’s report arose or not during the process that led the club to use Abel, but Stewart defended his processes.
“What I would say is that Albertin has a 30 -year history in this sport,” Stewart said in defense of club’s hiring practices. “I think we can say that this speaks for himself. I would also say that we are founded with the ideal as a player focused on the player and, frankly, our culture and our values say that there is no place for bad behavior within our club. We also follow all the mandates and processes of the League to the T, if not more, so I would say that we will continue doing that.”
Outside the reports, neither Stewart nor Millet said they heard the players of the players about Montoya’s behavior, something they attributed to their roles in the club’s business, as well as geography. His offices are in San Francisco, while the players trained and played in San José during the 2024 season.
Executives said they could not describe the next steps of the club because they only found out about the second complaint against Montoya earlier, but that the club plans to cooperate completely with the NWSL investigation.
Montoya’s ability to continue his work in the midst of an investigation is different from other NWSL trainers who have faced a disciplinary action since an abuse of abuse in 2021 in 2021. The NWSL has generally delivered the suspensions, as they did in the case of the former aluminum of the pride of Orlando, Amanda Cromwell, which was placed in the administrative license in June 2022 Acts
For her part, the NWSL commissioner, Jessica Berman, supported the league’s own processes, shortly after confirming that an investigation into Bay’s coaching staff was underway.
“We continue focused and we are very safe in the system and the process that we establish that it arises from joint investigation and everything we agree with general prosecutors is in place and is underway and is implemented and, in many ways, confirmed all the systemic reform we made about our account and in association with the association of the actors,” said NWSL Bermesic Commissioner Bermein Bermain at an early press conference on Friday.
