Major League Soccer engaged the firm Proskauer Rose LLP to conduct an investigation into the Portland Timbers handling of a 2021 domestic violence incident involving former midfielder Andy Polo.

Polo was dismissed from the team in February and had his contract terminated by MLS after a domestic violence incident from May of 2021 came to light.

The objective of the MLS investigation:

1. Whether the Timbers intended to or did induce or pressure Polo’s domestic partner to decline to pursue the criminal charges against Mr. Polo; and

2. Whether the Timbers intentionally failed to report the May 23, 2021 incident and the related criminal citation to MLS in order to protect Mr. Polo or otherwise conceal the incident.

The MLS investigation looked into the Timbers handling of the domestic violence incident. The investigation report is an interesting read. I’ve uploaded the entire PDF of the five-page report for you to look over yourself.

It’s a lot to digest, but the investigation found that the Timbers did not interfere with or pressure the mother of Polo’s children. Further the report said: “The investigators concluded that the Timbers did not attempt to hide the incident from anyone including the League.”

The franchise will pay a $25,000 fine. Also the MLS club still has questions to answer and it must know that public trust has damaged. But the facts of the investigation are important. It was a bad look when the organization sent multiple employees to the scene of the incident. Also, it was wrong for the Timbers to not immediately suspend Polo when it learned of the citation in May of 2021.

In February, the Timbers issued a statement that read:

“We deeply regret not suspending Polo immediately, especially considering the troubling new details of abuse that surfaced this week. It was a failure on our part, and one that will never happen again.”

No cover-up, says the MLS investigation.

What do you make of it?

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