New England Revolution President Brian Bilello Addresses Fans Concerns Amid Club Turmoil

“To the fans, we all empathize with them."

Photo Courtesy of New England Revolution

Amid the turmoil surrounding the New England Revolution, club president Brian Bilello and interim sporting director Curt Onalfo met with the media.

Changes have come rapid for the club with Richie Williams no longer serving as interim head coach. While his role with the club remains unknown, Bilello stated that Williams has been granted some time away from the club.

“As everyone can imagine, this has been a really difficult time for Richie these last few days and weeks, and we've offered Richie some time off during this window,” the club president said. “In terms of his role with the club, I don't have anything to share with that today, but we're continuing to have conversations with Richie about his future role with the club.”

Bilello also revealed that Williams along with Onalfo were never told that they would be serving in their interim roles for the rest of the season.

“Yeah, so just to clarify something before, I've never told Curt that he is the interim sporting director for the rest of the year and Richie [Williams] was never told he was the interim head coach for the rest of the year,” the club president stated. “So, both of those guys were at some point told that they were the interims, and I just wanted to clarify that.”

Former Revolution II head coach Clint Peay is now serving as interim head coach. Assistant coaches Shalrie Joseph and Dave van den Bergh have departed the club.

Onalfo stated that the club and the coaches mutually parted ways.

“With all the experience that I have doing this, it was clear to me that we had to make changes that would allow us to be the most successful version of ourselves,” the interim sporting director said. “And that's what I did.”

Amid all of the changes, Revolution fans have grown upset over the lack of transparency from the club. The Blazing Musket asked Bilello what his message would be to the fans.

“To the fans, we all empathize with them,” the club president said. “I was someone who had season tickets for this club. I try to have as good a relationship as I can have with our fans. But when you’re in these very complex matters, when you’re dealing with very formal investigations, there’s times where you can’t say things and there’s times where you can’t share things that maybe you wish you could share with your players, with your fan base, with everyone. That’s a really difficult position to be in as someone who really values my relationships with our fans, with our players, with my staff. So, I’m not looking for sympathy on that by any stretch of imagination, but it’s really hard for us, too. So, I understand their frustration and I absolutely empathize with them.”

Biello was also directly asked about the lack of transparency by Tara Sullivan of The Boston Globe. While not going into further detail, the club president stated that he emphasizes with media members and fans searching for answers.

“Yeah, I'm going to take that to assume you're talking about the investigation and that piece of this. Look, I empathize with you,” he said. “I empathize with our fans and with our players about that. It was a league-conducted investigation. I have faith in the league, I have faith in their processes, and I understand their needs for confidentiality and matters in terms of protecting subjects, witnesses, reporters, all those people involved in these investigations. So, in terms of their investigation, I had to refer people to the league. But you know I empathize with our fans and with our players and with the media about that.”