Aston Villa boss Carla Ward said a manager should be sacked for having a relationship with a player, calling it a “complete abuse of power”.
Ward said it is the responsibility of managers to protect players and said “to cross that line is unacceptable and it can’t happen.”
The former Sheffield United and Birmingham City boss said: “It makes me very angry because we are here to set an environment and a comfortable place to work that the players feel safe, backed and looked after, so I just don’t understand anyone that crosses that line. You can’t do it. It is a complete abuse of power.
“We are in a moment where there is a microscope on the women’s game and people have taken advantage of certain positions, and I don’t like that and I don’t think it is right.”
Asked if a player-coach relationship should be a sackable offence, Ward replied: “Yes. One hundred per cent.”
The 40-year-old, who represented the likes of Sheffield United, Lincoln and Bristol Rovers during her playing days, said the possible grey area of a player-coach relationship – given it is not illegal, providing no minors are involved – should be addressed in contracts.
She added: “It is an unwritten rule, and I am sure teachers don’t have it in their contracts. But given where we are at now, and people don’t understand it, maybe put it in black and white so it is clear.”
Chelsea head coach Emma Hayes and Tottenham’s Robert Vilahamn were equally unequivocal on Thursday when asked for their thoughts on the issue.
They agreed that the WSL should prohibit manager-player relationships and have it written into its code of conduct, while Hayes believed there were also issues over relationships between players.
Hayes said: “I think the HR teams in each and every club has a role to play in educating with those challenges and I don’t think those challenges are limited to player-coach. It’s player-to-player.
“One player’s in the team, one’s not in the team. One might be in the last year of their contract, one might not be. One might be competing in a position with someone else…you don’t need me to spell it out. It creates challenges.
“Those of us who’ve been in the women’s game a long period of time know those things have been happening in dressing rooms.
“Longer term, I think it would be an ideal world where you don’t have to deal with that. It’s quite challenging for coaching teams to deal with it.”
Vilahamn said new WSL guidelines were needed on coach-player relationships, adding: “I don’t think it should be a question to be raised here, it’s crazy. So for me, no, it’s not professional and shouldn’t be like that.
“I get it, people fall in love everywhere, but it’s not where you should fall in love. You shouldn’t work with your partner in that way.
“But if people don’t understand, we might need to find new guidelines so people understand that it’s not acceptable in this environment.
“If that’s needed to make sure we find good ways to not have this happening, then yes, if that helps, absolutely.”
Ward also said that players feel unable to report a potential issue, adding: “Say, you have got a director of football and they have done wrong, or are doing wrong, and you know that, and a head coach or manager does it, you can’t go to that person because the first thing they will do is rip up your contract. I saw this as a player a lot.
“You hear things all the time and it infuriates me. The only way to clean up the game is to highlight it and get rid of it.”
