Sporting KC has hired former Portland Timbers football president Gavin Wilkinson as athletic director, sources briefed on the deal tell The Athletic.
Wilkinson was the longtime general manager and president of soccer for the Portland Timbers and their NWSL club Portland Thorns, but was fired near the end of the 2022 season following separate investigations into the organizations' handling of misconduct by players or coaches.
Longtime head coach Peter Vermes will remain at the top of the football operations hierarchy as chief football officer, the sources said, and Wilkinson will report to Vermes. An announcement is expected on Thursday.
More from The Athletic…
An investigation into Wilkinson was commissioned by the U.S. Soccer Federation and led by former Attorney General Sally Q. Yates. At issue was misconduct across the NWSL, including the Thorns and Wilkinson's handling of head coach Paul Riley's firing from the organization in 2015 and subsequent rehiring at the Western New York Flash. The Yates report found that Wilkinson recommended the Flash to Riley months after the Portland head coach was fired for cause after an internal investigation found evidence of his misconduct with players. A secondhand account in the Yates Report said that Wilkinson told a manager in Western New York that Riley had been “put in a bad position” by a player who had accused him of misconduct and said he had the Head coach would be hired “immediately.” Western New York hired Riley in early 2016. He remained in that position until his sacking in 2021 after a report from The Athletic found he had sexually assaulted Thorns players during his time at the club – a claim Riley denied.
GO DEEPER
Investigation: US Soccer, NWSL did not provide a safe player environment
Wilkinson was also involved in the Timbers' failure to report domestic violence allegations against midfielder Andy Polo in 2021. A league investigation conducted by Proskauer Rose LLP in 2022 concluded that while the Timbers did not report the allegations, they did so not out of incompetence, but rather out of a desire to cover it up. The team learned of the allegation shortly after the incident in May 2021. Under Wilkinson's leadership, the Timbers exercised their option on Polo's contract in December 2021. The team fired Polo after the allegations became public. Following the league's investigation, MLS fined the club $25,000 for failing to report the incident.
GO DEEPER
MLS fines the Portland Timbers $25,000 for failing to report the Andy Polo incident
Sporting KC wanted to strengthen the club's front office this offseason and applied for the job. Sources familiar with those talks say Orlando City technical director Ricardo Moreira and former New York Red Bulls sporting director Dennis Hamlett were finalists along with Wilkinson.
Wilkinson was the Timbers' first technical director when the club entered the MLS as an expansion team in 2011. He was the architect of a playing squad that won the MLS Cup in 2015, bringing players like Diego Valeri, Diego Chara, Sebastian Blanco, Liam Ridgewell and more to Portland over the years. With Wilkinson at the helm, the Timbers also reached the MLS Cup in 2018 and 2021. They reached the playoffs in seven of his 11 full seasons as head of the athletic department.
Sporting KC had a slow start to 2023 but recovered in the second half of the season and made it to the playoffs, defeating rival St. Louis City in round one and ultimately losing to the Houston Dynamo in the conference semifinals. Vermes has a long-term contract.
The current squad consists of Alan Pulido, Johnny Russell, Daniel Salloi and Erik Thommy. SKC can sign a designated player this winter.
Comments are closed.