Willie Kirk broke his silence a few weeks after the scandal broke in England. The Leicester coach was fired after the club found out that he was having a relationship with a player on the squad. This sparked a revolution in the Women’s Super League, England’s top women’s football division.
The protagonist, in a interview In the Daily Mail, he wanted to explain what the events were like with all kinds of details. He affirms that it was a mutual relationship, which began with an approach by the soccer player. And she asks for forgiveness, leaving the door open to having a future on the benches of women’s football.
“There are a number of things I need to get off my chest. First of all, my wife and I have been separated for over a year. People now say: ‘she’s a bad coach, she’s a bad husband, she’s a bad human being’. One of the players contacted me outside of work to express how she felt about me. “I thought it was ridiculous and I just closed it.”
“Things changed when the player was injured. It seemed like she justified everything”
Kirk
In the following months there were new approaches: “I told myself: ‘That will never happen, there is a code of conduct.’ Things changed when the player was injured at the end of last year. She seemed like she justified everything. Just before Christmas we met on a personal level. She was injured, so she wasn’t going to stop me from doing my job because she couldn’t be selected.”
“I was obviously trying to justify it, but I never got around to it. After Christmas we started seeing each other once a week, she would come here, or the next week I would go to her house. We arrived in the dark, we left in the dark, clearly because we knew that she was bad.”
“She came, or the following week I went to her house. “We arrived and left in the dark, we knew it was wrong”
Kirk
In February, during the national team break, things got worse. “I told him that I was going to go to Milan for a few days. And she said “why don’t we go together?” I told him that was going too far, but we finally decided to do it. We convinced each other that we could do it. “We flew on different days and spent two nights in Italy and then took separate flights back.”
“We told ourselves we had to finish this until the end of the season. “Either I leave the club or you leave”
Kirk
“When we came back, we said: “I think this has gone too far, we have to finish this until the end of the season. Either I leave the club or you leave. “We had agreed that we were taking too much risk.”
Complaint
A few days later everything blew up. “They took me to a meeting saying that they had filed a complaint against me and that the club’s lawyer would be in touch and external lawyers would organize an investigation. “Ten days passed.”
“We were preparing for the FA game against Liverpool. Fifteen minutes before the last session on Friday, the director of women’s football took me to the office and the in-house lawyer was there and I knew what it was about.
“They asked me to be honest, ‘Are you in a relationship with a player? “We know everything, we know you’ve been to Italy, we know it started right before Christmas.” By admitting it, they treated me and I felt like a criminal.”
“It’s my fault, I should never have done anything. There is a code of conduct, I participated in its implementation”
Kirk
“I think the club could have managed it better. It’s my fault, I should have never done anything. “There is a code of conduct, I was involved in implementing it, I was certainly involved in living it day to day and trying to push our standards, so it is absolutely ridiculous that I am the one who has broken that.”
“As difficult as it would have been, I felt I should have a hearing with the staff and players to explain myself, apologize face to face and give my side of the story. That may not have kept me there, but we will never know.”
“It has been frustrating. I hated myself. I hated the club. I have had times where I have resented the relationship even though the relationship is still going on. This wasn’t a coach flexing his muscle: “Get into bed with me and I’ll play you in the starting lineup.”
“This wasn’t a coach exercising his power: ‘Get into bed with me and I’ll play you in the starting lineup.’”
Kirk
‘I am not a criminal, I have not committed a crime. I’ve endangered an environment and that’s a pretty big deal. The club made mistakes in the past, I came in, overcame a points gap that had never been resolved before and retained WSL status. Now I’ve made a mistake and they don’t want anything to do with me. “I felt disappointed for the club in that sense.”
Future
“I stayed in women’s football when I received offers to go to men’s football. I think I have contributed to growing the game, the number of players I have helped develop. It would be almost like starting over in the masculine. I just feel like I need to try to stay in the feminine because I’ve put so much into it. “I don’t want to walk away from that.”
“After 14 years of building my reputation, I think it would be hard to destroy it because of one mistake. It’s my mistake and I should never have put myself in that position and I regret making that decision. I hope someone is willing to see the good in me. I will speak to a couple of clubs outside the United Kingdom next week, I hope something comes out…”, stated the former Leicester coach.
Follow the Diario AS channel on WhatsAppwhere you will find all the sport in a single space: the current news of the day, the agenda with the latest news of the most important sporting events, the most outstanding images, the opinion of the best AS brands, reports, videos, and some humor from time to time.
2024-05-11 08:57:14
#Leicester #coach #admits #relationship #player #called #told #felt
:quality(85)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/VEKW76CS3REF3PRLYW7J5CL6JE)
