WSL player-coach relationships are hard to police – but that’s no excuse

Willie Kirk's sacking should prompt a change in attitude towards an issue that has plagued women's football for too longKirk was sacked for ‘breaching the club’s code of conduct’ There are understood to be potentially dozens of similar player-coach relationships across the football pyramid. The club said Kirk had “breached the team’s code of conduct to a degree that makes his position untenable”. The 45-year-old has not commented on the matter publicly.

There is no need to rehearse again the position that player-manager relationships create an unhealthy dynamic within squads, and not only for the people directly implicated in a pernicious imbalance of power.For the players, coaches and staff around them, morale is dented, and there are legitimate questions over a manager’s ability to select a team impartially. It may even have grave ramifications affecting players’ careers, contracts and wages.

It is also true that such liaisons are hard to police, not least because of employment laws surrounding personal privacy. In the UK, employers need permission to keep certain types of data about their staff, and employees have a right not to disclose personal details such as their sexual history and orientation.

A precedent has finally – belatedly – been set. Now it must be followed. Codes of conduct are dictated by clubs, not the FA, though every organisation must have one to obtain a license to play in theEarlier this month, when news of Kirk’s suspension first broke, the majority of WSL managers condemned player-coach relationships as “inappropriate”. Two clubs did not allow questions on the issue at press conferences., who is in a relationship with teammate Ann Katrin-Berger.

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