And three members of U.S. Soccer’s board of directors publicly condemned the organization’s comments. Don Garber, the commissioner of Major League Soccer and a longtime board member, said in a statement that he had personally expressed to Cordeiro “how unacceptable and offensive I found the statements in that filing to be.”

Cindy Parlow Cone, U.S. Soccer’s vice president and a former women’s national team player, will replace Cordeiro as the president. She is the first woman to hold the position.

“I want to thank Carlos for his many years of hard work and dedication on behalf of U.S. Soccer,” Parlow Cone said. “He is a good man with a good heart and his significant work to help bring the 2026 World Cup to the United States will have a positive impact for generations. The passion that has come to the surface in the past two days is what inspires me to look forward, to work hard towards mending relationships and moving the game forward for all.”

Molly Levinson, a spokeswoman for the players in their lawsuit, pointed to problems at U.S. Soccer beyond Cordeiro. “While it is gratifying that there has been such a deafening outcry against U.S.S.F.’s blatant misogyny, the sexist culture and policies overseen by Carlos Cordeiro have been approved for years by the board of directors of U.S.S.F.,” she said in a statement. “This institution must change and support and pay women players equally.”

Cordeiro became president two years ago, after a contested and acrimonious election at a time when U.S. Soccer was at one of the lowest points in its history. Months earlier, the men’s national team had suffered an embarrassing loss to Trinidad and Tobago, failing to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986. Several candidates announced campaigns to challenge Sunil Gulati, the U.S. Soccer president since 2006, with many promising radical changes to the federation.

Cordeiro — at the time the U.S. Soccer vice president and Gulati’s right-hand man — surprisingly threw his hat into the ring, and Gulati later decided not to run for re-election. Cordeiro was elected on the third ballot, after a speech that promised change.

“Today the status quo is unacceptable,” he said at the time. “U.S. Soccer needs to change. Transformational change. The vote comes down to one simple question: Who can actually deliver that change?”