Angel City FC Fined for Paying Players Under the Table

The NWSL’s Angel City FC has been punished for breaching the salary cap, resulting in fines, a loss of points, and front office suspensions, the league announced Thursday.

The league investigation found the club violated multiple rules, including entering into “five side letters directly with players” in 2023 that led to excess benefits and compensation that weren’t reported to the league, and put the team about $50,000 over the salary cap for four weeks this season. Team president and CEO Julie Uhrman and general manager Angela Hucles Mangano are suspended from “conducting duties relating to any player transactions” until January, the league announced, along with a $200,000 fine and a three-point deduction in the standings. The NWSL also said it will do annual investigations and audits of player spending across the league.

“The NWSL remains committed to maintaining fairness and transparency across all clubs, reinforcing the importance of adhering to established rules and upholding the competitive balance within the league,” the league said in its announcement of the punishments.

Though common in the U.S., salary caps are largely an unorthodox concept in soccer globally. The NWSL competes for players with international leagues like England’s Women’s Super League, which has a “soft cap” that already allows the biggest clubs to spend more than $8 million on players. The new NWSL CBA will eventually increase the salary cap from $2.75 million to $5.1 million, but that won’t happen until 2030. The new women’s soccer league in the U.S. that began play in August, the USL Super League, won’t have a salary cap.

The three-point deduction is the largest in NWSL history, and reflects the growing trend of financial punishments leading to a loss of points. Earlier this year, the Premier League docked Everton six points and Nottingham Forest four points for breaches of league financial rules. But unlike the Premier League, Angel City isn’t in danger of being relegated. The team falls to 12th place and nine points below a playoff spot with just four matches remaining.

Angel City recently became the highest-valued team in women’s sports at $250 million when Disney’s Bob Iger and his wife, journalist Willow Bay, reached a deal to become the new controlling owners of the club. The pair completed their purchase of the team in early September from a group of founding owners that included Alexis Ohanian and a number of other celebrities.

Angel City declined to comment.

A recent anonymous survey of NWSL general managers conducted by ESPN revealed these kinds of infractions could be widespread. Eleven of the league’s 14 general managers said they don’t think every team’s front office follows league rules, including around paying players under the table.

“People have different ways that they can give players money and I think that’s the biggest thing that probably front office people do,” one general manager told ESPN.