Former Washington Spirit star Huster gives candid response as NWSL becomes first major American sports league to eliminate draft

The NWSL Players' Association (NWSLPA) made some big announcements in the week, with a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) establishing free agency while also removing the draft. The new CBA also "protects against trades without player consent, establishes guaranteed contracts, safeguards player health through workload management, and institutes revenue sharing".

These changes will give players more freedom when it comes to choosing the teams they join and remove some of the negatives associated with the NWSL, such as being traded without desire, that do not exist in other countries. In an interview with the Guardian, NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said that the league has now “removed those self imposed obstacles to create a clear runway for the best players in the world to be able to come into the league”.

Tori Huster, who played in the league for 11 years with the Spirit and is now president of the NWSLPA, spoke candidly about this to Vanity Fair. "To put the agency back in players’ hands and they’re able to choose where they want to play - it’s not something that happens in American sports," she said. "The draft is something that’s celebrated, and it’s something that we f*cking hate."

There are countless examples of NWSL players being traded despite not wanting to change clubs. In a recent interview with GOAL, Ashley Sanchez, capped 27 times by the United States, opened up on a switch from the Spirit to the North Carolina Courage which left her "heartbroken", while Bethany Balcer, another U.S. international, shared a cryptic social media post when the Seattle Reign traded her to Racing Louisville just this week. "People will write the narrative they want to write, but the truth will always come to light," she wrote on X.

The NWSL resumes play on Friday, with all 14 teams in action over the weekend after the league paused for the Olympic Games, a tournament that the USWNT emerged from with a gold medal.