Current Chelsea and soon-to-be USWNT coach Emma Hayes has said she regrets calling player-player relationships 'inappropriate,' but hasn't walked back her comments entirely.
Her original comments were in response to allegations that Leicester City boss Willie Kirk was involved in a player-coach relationship. Kirk is under investigation.
"Player-coach relationships are inappropriate, player-to-player relationships are inappropriate," Hayes had commented on the situation.
"We have to make sure there is a minimum standard in place. We need to have safeguarding... we have to look it at in the context of where the game has come from. We're in a professional era now where the expectation in place for players and coaches is such that all of our focus and attention has got to be on having the top standards."
"Women's football as we know has been a very amateur game for a long period of time. I say this for player-to-player relationships as well. There's challenges that we are moving to a point where we should be moving past those places."
Chelsea defender Jess Carter, who is in a relationship with teammate Ann-Katrin Berger, subsequently liked a tweet calling Hayes' comparison of player-player and player-coach relationships "beyond bonkers."
Beyond bonkers to bring player/player relationships into this conversation IMO. https://t.co/yiP6BmbK97
— Beth Fisher (@BethFisherSport) March 14, 2024
Hayes clarified her stance after Chelsea's 3-1 win over Arsenal Friday (March 15).
"I want to be clear to everybody in the room, I don't want to create any more clickbait headlines for you guys. I think sometimes that becomes the case when we have honest conversations about things," said Hayes.
"Of course I'm disappointed about that, of course Jess and I have had a conversation today as I have with other players on the team."
"They know exactly who I am and what my intentions were. But I have to expect that — I'm supposed to be the most well-trained, non-clickbait coach and I let myself down yesterday. I didn't think it was right for me to use the term 'inappropriate' for the players."
"I don't take those things back, but I have zero criticism for any player in my dressing room for anything — their professionalism regardless of their status, regardless of who they are in a relationship. I've been unbelievably supportive of all of the players, I've been a champion for equality and equity."
"I do want to say I have an unbelievable dressing room and you saw tonight from everyone, that they were extremely focused on the things that matter. And, as I keep saying to our players all the time, even if we have disagreements in life, we mustn't play them out publicly."
"I think you saw from the performance tonight that everybody is absolutely invested in what we are doing."
