Player-Coach Relations Should Be Sackable Offense – Aston Villa Boss

Aston Villa boss Carla Ward believes player-coach relationships should be a sackable offence after allegations came to light at Leicester last week.

Foxes manager Willie Kirk was suspended by the team as it looks into claims of a relationship with one of his players, thus he was not present on the touchline for his team’s victory over Liverpool in the FA Cup quarterfinal on Saturday.

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“Willie Kirk is assisting the club with an internal process, the outcomes of which will be determined in due course,” Leicester said in a statement. Kirk has not been found guilty and the investigation is ongoing.

Asked about player-coach relationships in her press conference on Thursday, Villa boss Ward said: “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, 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.

“When you talk about where does the line get drawn, I think it’s very simple, when the game got professionalised, you can’t cross that line. There’s talk of pre-professionalised, there was a social aspect. When I was a player, it was a very social aspect, but now we’re talking about levels that it’s parent-teacher in my opinion. You can’t do it.”

Asked if it should be a sackable offence, Ward’s response was a clear “yes”.

In the women’s game in England, there have been several high-profile examples of relationships between players and coaches. In 2017, former Lionesses manager Mark Sampson was fired after it came to light that he had previously dated a player at Bristol Academy. Last month, Sheffield United fired former Leicester manager Jonathan Morgan after discovering he had a romantic involvement with a player while leading the Foxes.

Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall also commented on the issues regarding player-coach relationships in the women’s game on Thursday, telling reporters at his press conference: “I think it’s very inappropriate for a number of reasons. It’s a clear no with relationships between player and manager. I think if you look in women’s football, when you look in the past there is no doubt if you look and read in NWSL for example, there is major issues within the game and there have been major issues in the past as well which probably, unfortunately, tells you there still are issues at some places. That concerns me from a player welfare perspective and I absolutely think that governing bodies, leagues, clubs, associations need to be strong on that. I do think it’s very inappropriate.”

Asked what those governing bodies could implement, Eidevall added: “In most situations it would be like, do you have whistle-blower mechanisms in place? What different ways of communicating do you have if you feel that inappropriate things are going on in the environment you are in? Or are you in a closed environment where you feel you don’t have any good way out? That’s 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 inappropriate relationships but it could also be other things. It’s safeguarding and making sure people are safe.”

In due course, there will be more updates as well as the final findings of Leicester’s inquiry into the claims pertaining to Kirk.