Emma Hayes, the new coach of the U.S. women’s national team, said the relationships between players on teams are “inappropriate” because they bring additional challenges, although she acknowledged that “we are dealing with people.”
Hayes will finish the season as manager of Chelsea in the Women’s Super League and is expected to make her debut leading the U.S. national team in a pair of friendlies against South Korea in June.
Hayes spoke at a press conference Thursday ahead of a WSL match against Arsenal. She was asked about player protection in the context of reports in the British media that Leicester women’s manager Willie Kirk is being investigated by the club following an allegation of a player-coach relationship.
“We need to provide protection, make sure it’s accessible to every club to protect players,” she said.
“Player-coach relationships are inappropriate, player-to-player relationships are inappropriate,” Hayes said. “But we have to look at it in the context of where the game has come from, and say, ‘look, we’re in a professional era now’, where the expectations for players and coaches are such that all our focus and attention has to go about having the highest standards.”
Player-to-player relationships can be difficult for a coach to navigate, she said.
“One player is on the team, the other is not on the team,” she said, listing some situations that could arise. “One may be in the last year of his contract, the other may not.
“We all know, those of us who have been playing women’s football for a long time, that these things happen in the changing rooms. In the longer term, it would be ideal… if you didn’t have to deal with that.”
She added: “We are dealing with people. We talk about it internally.”
Hayes said it’s important to consider the historical contexts.
“Women’s football, as we know it, has been a very amateur game for a long time, so – and I say this also when it comes to player relationships – there are challenges that are taking us to a point where we should be going. beyond those places,” she said.
Pernille Harder and Magdalena Eriksson have been in a relationship for the past ten years and played together for three seasons at Chelsea. Last summer they switched to Bayern Munich.
