When Emma Hayes, the esteemed, long-standing manager of Chelsea Women, announced she would leave the west London club at the end of the season, the senior players informed the club’s hierarchy that they would prefer her replacement to be female.
Well, that’s being a bit picky, you may think. What if a male candidate offered the best chance of more silverware? But then you look over at Sheffield United and the fact that Jonathan Morgan was sacked as the manager of the club’s women’s side last week and you realise female players have very good reason to want to avoid the potential pitfalls of being coached by a man.
The Morgan case is complex. A complaint was made about him after the death of Maddy Cusack, the Sheffield United midfielder, in September. A third-party investigation cleared the path for Morgan to return to coaching in December but Cusack’s family were extremely unhappy with the manner in which the investigation — which concluded that “no evidence of wrongdoing was found” — was conducted.
The family have submitted their own evidence of testimonies to the FA, which is now conducting a formal investigation, having previously stated it would assess information relating to Cusack’s death but that this did not comprise a formal investigation.
Cusack’s father is a criminal solicitor. Most other families would not have had the nous to navigate the system nor the language to challenge the initial investigation’s outcome. It should not be the case that the FA waits for a bereaved family to compile their own evidence before becoming properly involved in such a serious matter.
Morgan was sacked because of behaviour not related to Cusack’s death. He had a relationship with a teenage player while he was coach at Leicester City Women. The Athletic spoke to the player in question, who said she was 17 when the relationship started, and presented a dossier to Sheffield United. Morgan kept the relationship secret and the player has said she feels he took advantage of her immaturity. Morgan said the relationship started when she was 18, and that though it may not have been appropriate, it was legal and consensual.
Cusack had been coached briefly by Morgan at Leicester in 2018. She had been convinced that he had taken a “personal dislike” to her and was happy to have a fresh start at Sheffield United only for her mental health to deteriorate when Morgan was appointed manager there a year ago.
Had the club known details about Morgan’s relationship with a player, he may not have been appointed in the first place.
Two years ago the FA offered guidance to clubs which stated: “In general, coach and adult player relationships are not advised because of the potential for power imbalance and the impact on team culture and dynamics. These are usually matters for clubs to manage via codes of conduct and expected standards of behaviour.”
In 2017 Mark Sampson, the England Women’s manager, was sacked by the FA for inappropriate conduct while he had been manager at Bristol Academy. He had a six-month relationship with one of his players who was over 18. Senior officials at the FA were aware of concerns about his interactions with players before appointing him to lead England’s women’s team. What the FA believes to be acceptable and unacceptable behaviour is not entirely clear.
It is untenable to ban men from coaching women. On a practical level there are not enough female coaches to fill the growing demand in an expanding sport. On the social side of the game, it is often a player’s brother, boyfriend or spouse who is ready to give up his time to help organise the players. I was once managed by a man who was engaged to one of the players in my team but their relationship was established before he became involved, and he was very fair about rotation and aware of potential concerns over favouritism.
It is far more damaging when a relationship emerges as a coach gets to know the team, especially when the player is young. When does flirting become grooming? How easy is it for a young female player to reject sexual advances without risking being sidelined, dropped or humiliated? A compliment from the man in charge carries more weight than one from a lad she may sit next to in history classes.
The relationship is so ripe for exploitation and hurt that the potential impacts should be fully understood and discussed at all clubs. It is a criminal sexual offence for anyone in a position of trust to have sex with a 16 or 17-year-old (a law that was extended to cover coaches in 2022) but that should not encourage managers and coaches to think they can embark on a relationship as soon as a player reaches 18. The potential for blurred lines is obvious. Attraction is not switched on once a certain birthday is reached. It is far safer and more sensible for every coach to treat all their players as out of bounds as potential romantic partners.
There is an intensity to coaching that not all budding managers can handle. All through the pyramid in the men’s game, players will knock on the manager’s door if they feel they have been dropped unfairly or been played out of position. The best coaches find a way to keep as many of them invested in the team as possible. If you add dating to the mix it becomes very difficult indeed and camaraderie will suffer.
Demanding that a coach refrains from having sex with a player is hardly onerous. But once that bar is set, there are still many more ways in which a man coaching women can create problems. Women’s bodies develop differently to those of men. It is alleged that Morgan caused Cusack to worry about her weight but even if that is not proved, it is the case that many male coaches across different sports do not grasp that female athletes cannot be judged in comparison to men. Between 18 and 22, women’s body shapes soften and alter as they reach peak fertility, whereas men become leaner and stronger.
If men are to continue to coach women, much more needs to be done to ensure that those who do so are properly educated about avoiding romantic relationships and understanding the plethora of differences between male and female physical development.
The FA needs to be exceptionally thorough in its fresh investigation into Morgan and then offer far more rigorous rules on how every male coach conducts himself.
