Coach-player relationships in football should be sackable offence, says Ward

The Aston Villa manager, Carla Ward, has called player-coach relationships in women’s football “unacceptable” following the news that Willie Kirk has been suspended and is being investigated by Leicester City over an alleged relationship with a player.

Earlier this season Sheffield United sacked Jonathan Morgan for an alleged relationship with a player during his time at Leicester City, before the club was professional and affiliated with the men’s side.

Player-manager relationships have been an open secret within the sport for a long time and while Morgan and Kirk have been named because of action taken by their clubs, many other managers in the women’s football pyramid are thought to have had relationships with players.

Asked whether it should be a sackable offence, Ward said: “Yep.” She added: “Our job and our duty is to protect players, first and foremost. So, to cross that line is unacceptable and it can’t happen. It makes me very angry because we’re here to set an environment, a comfortable place that people come to work in, where they feel safe, where they feel backed, where they feel looked after. I just don’t understand anyone who crosses that line. The game is professionalised.”

Critically, there is a lack of reporting mechanisms available. “That is the biggest problem in my opinion,” said Ward. “I feel really strongly about it. Essentially if you’re the manager and you’re crossing that line it’s very difficult for anyone to report it. Yes, you can at some clubs, of course, but it does become difficult. It’s a complete abuse of power. We’re in a moment right now where there’s a microscope on the women’s game, I think people have taken advantage of certain positions, I don’t like that, I don’t think it’s right.”

The Arsenal manager, Jonas Eidevall echoed Ward’s sentiments. “I think it’s very inappropriate for a number of reasons,” he said. “It’s a clear no with relationships between player and manager. If you look at women’s football and when you look in the past – and there’s no doubt if you look and you read the NWSL reports, for example – there are major issues within the game and there have been in the past as well. [This] probably, unfortunately, tells you that there still are issues in some places.

“That concerns me from a player welfare perspective and I absolutely think that governing bodies, leagues, clubs and associations need to be strong on that because I do think it’s very inappropriate.”

Eidevall called for better reporting channels too. “In most situations, it would be: do you have whistleblower mechanisms in place? What different ways of communicating do you have if you feel that inappropriate things are going on in the environment that you are in? Or are you in a closed environment where you feel like: ‘I don’t have any good way out of this?’,” he said. “Just to make sure that players in this instance have the relevant communication ways to be able to report if anything inappropriate is going on. That could be an inappropriate relationship, but it could also be other things. That’s safeguarding and making sure that people are safe.”

The topic dominated the press conferences on Thursday in the buildup to the weekend’s WSL games, which include Chelsea facing Arsenal in a top-of-the-table clash at Stamford Bridge on Friday night and Leicester, who are currently managed by assistant manager Jennifer Foster and first-team coach Stephen Kirby, taking on Tottenham away on Sunday.

Bristol City’s manager, Lauren Smith, was equally strong on the matter, saying there was no grey area. “It’s unacceptable and it shouldn’t happen,” she said. “I believe it’s a sackable offence. That goes not just from the head coach position, it’s a position of power within the staffing team. That’s absolutely how I feel about it. Is it a problem within the women’s game? I think the fact we’re having the conversation shows it is an issue on something that needs to be looked at, dealt with sooner rather than later. We’ve seen other instances across the world where things get ignored and pushed under the carpet. It’s not time for that, it’s time for action and consequences.

“Clubs should be responsible for what goes on within their clubs. We’ve seen in the past that if clubs don’t know how to or can’t, support from the FA or governing body, LMA or PFA, it’s important everyone has a voice. If clubs don’t know what to do then they need to ask for help.”