Danielle Reyna, the wife of former US men’s national team captain Claudio Reyna and mother of current player Gio Reyna, admitted to alerting U.S. Soccer of head coach Gregg Berhalter’s act of domestic violence in the 1990s.
“But I want to be very clear that I did not ask for Gregg to be fired, I did not make any threats, and I don’t know anything about any blackmail attempts,” Danielle Reyna said, per Fox Sports’ Doug McIntyre.
U.S. Soccer launched an independent investigation upon learning of an allegation against USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter on December 11, 2022. The investigation is currently being led by Jenny Kramer, BJay Pak and Chris Marquardt of Alston & Bird LLP and remains ongoing.
Gregg Berhalter took to Twitter on Wednesday to explain the allegation, revealing a domestic abuse incident between the head coach and his wife 31 years ago. The social media post went on to insinuate that an individual, now confirmed as Danielle Reyna, blackmailed Berhalter with this information that would ‘take him down’.
— Gregg Berhalter (@GreggBerhalter_) January 3, 2023
U.S. Soccer followed up with a statement of their own, thanking Berhalter and his wife for coming forward with the story before diving into details of the investigation.
“Through this process, U.S. Soccer has learned about potential inappropriate behavior towards multiple members of our staff by individuals outside of our organization. We take such behavior seriously and have expanded our investigation to include those allegations,” explained U.S. Soccer in a statement.
“We appreciate Gregg and Rosalind coming forward to speak openly about this incident. Consistent with our commitment to transparency, we will share the results of the investigation publicly when it is complete. U.S. Soccer condemns violence of any kind and takes such allegations very seriously.”
At the moment, Gregg Berhalter’s future with the organization remains unclear. His contract as head coach of the US men’s national team has since expired, and no update has been given on his stance.
But the organization did confirm Berhalter’s assistant coach Anthony Hudson will serve as head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team for its upcoming January training camp in Carson, California.
“With the ongoing investigation and U.S. Soccer’s full review of the USMNT program following the conclusion of the 2022 FIFA World Cup still underway, Hudson will be joined in Los Angeles by fellow World Cup assistant coach B.J. Callaghan and Under-20 Men’s Youth National Team head coach Mikey Varas in selecting and managing the roster for the friendlies against Serbia and Colombia.” stated U.S. Soccer.
Credit: 90min.com
