Angel City president and GM barred from player transactions for salary-cap violation

Angel City was hit with multiple penalties Thursday after an investigation by the Women’s National Soccer League determined it violated the league’s salary cap.

Angel City was fined $200,000, was handed a three-point deduction in the standings and president Julie Uhrman and general manager Angela Hucles Mangano were suspended from any duties related to player transactions for the remainder of the 2024 calendar year.

The penalties come after NWSL determined Angel City entered into five side-letter agreements with players in 2023 that were not disclosed to the league. These agreements included a combination of compensation and benefits that resulted in the team exceeding the salary cap of $2.75 million by approximately $50,000 for four weeks during the 2024 season, according to the NWSL.

Read more: Bob Iger and Willow Bay complete purchase of controlling interest in Angel City FC

The names of the players and other specifics about the agreements were not disclosed.

The three-point deduction dropped Angel City (6-12-4) to 12th in the 14-team table with 19 points, leaving it four places and nine points out of a playoff berth with four games to play, crippling the team’s slim postseason hopes heading into Friday’s game with the Reign in Seattle.

The penalties are the latest blow in what has been a season of tumult for the richest franchise in women’s professional sports history. In July, Willow Bay, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC, and her husband, Disney CEO Bob Iger, purchased a controlling stake in the team, driving its valuation to $250 million, according to Sportico.

That followed months of what the Wall Street Journal called “infighting, politics and power plays” among the team’s owners, including lead 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 has suffered on the field, never winning more than eight games in a season and making the playoffs just once while repeatedly being sanctioned for violating NWSL rules.

In 2021, before the team had played a game, it was fined $20,000 in cash and $20,000 in allocation money for breaking the league’s tampering policy. Earlier that year it was also fined an undisclosed amount for announcing the signing of Christen Press before the contract had been approved.

Uhrman, one of the team’s three founding owners, was fined for “approaching the officials” following a match early last season. In 2022, former sporting director Eni Aluko was fined and suspended for entering the pitch during a match.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.