Williams blasts RSL owner
Published:Wednesday | September 2, 2020 | 12:43 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
In the midst of allegations involving Real Salt Lake’s majority owner, Dell Loy Hansen, for making racist comments, head club scout and former national player Andy Williams has revealed incidents of racial abuse by the owner.
Williams also criticised Hansen for his lack of investment into scouting for the MLS team.
In response to the shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed black man by police officers in Kenosha, Wisconsin on August 23, players of sports leagues in America refused to play games last Wednesday and Thursday in protest.
The initiative, which was started by the NBA, trickled down to Major League Soccer (MLS) players where a majority of games scheduled for last Wednesday were postponed including Real Salt Lake’s match again Los Angeles Football Club. The move was not supported by Hansen, who went on the X96 Radio from Hell podcast and expressed his dissatisfaction at the action.
“All I can say is they supported other issues nationally; they clearly did not support our city or our organisation,” Hansen said. “It’s taken a lot of wind out of my sails, what effort I want to put into recruiting players and building a great team.”
NO EFFORT
Williams in an interview with Utah television station KSL said that Hansen has not made any effort in this regard.
“He’s never invested in the team. He doesn’t spend. Scouting doesn’t exist. I don’t go anywhere, my staff doesn’t go anywhere. We watch soccer like everybody else on the TV,” he said. “With him saying that, that’s crazy. He doesn’t invest in scouting, he’s not trying to improve the team currently. He’s trying to spend the least money as it is to survive, which is sad. The fans here deserve a lot better.”
Furthermore in a subsequent interview with The Athletic on Thursday, Williams detailed incidents of Hansen allegedly making racially charged statements.
The 42-year-old Williams has been involved with Real Salt Lake for 15 years in which six of those were spent as a player. After his retirement in 2011, he served as the club’s head scout until April when he was placed on furlough.
Hansen has been criticised by players across the league following his comments on Thursday’s radio programme as well as other sporting figures such as Utah Jazz’s Donovan Mitchell. With calls demanding that he divest his interest in the wake of the allegations made in Thursday’s report, Hansen made an announcement on Sunday declaring his intention to sell the team as well as other clubs that he owns including National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) franchise Utah Royals and United Soccer League (USL) club Real Monarchs.