Former national team soccer player Essi Sainio considers the relationships between coaches and players to be somewhat inappropriate, but according to him, the matter is not completely black and white.
Emma Hyuppa,
Petra Manner
The relationships between footballers and their coaches have been the talk of English professional football in recent weeks.
Leicester City, which plays in the English Super League, i.e. the women’s main series, fired its head coach at the end of an internal investigation on Thursday To Willie Kirkbecause he was considered to have been in a relationship with a team player and thus violated the club’s operating principles.
In Leicester, the coaching responsibility is now temporary With Jennifer Foster and By Stephen Kirby, who were part of the coaching group even before Kirk was fired. The team’s best scorer is the Finnish national team striker Jutta Rantala.
Playing in the country’s second highest league level, Sheffield United fired their head coach in February by Jonathan Morganbecause he was suspected of having a relationship with a player at his previous club.
Sports expert Essi Sainion according to the topic has been brought up from time to time in women’s football. When Sainio went to Germany as a professional in 2006, there was a similar case in recent memory in the Bundesliga, which caused a great stir.
– According to my own experience, there are some of these (relationships between coaches and athletes) and they are discussed. There are also secret relationships, and they are also discussed. Some things are secret, even if everyone knows them, says Sainio.
The positions of the national team coaches differ
Head coach of the England national team Sarina Wiegman made his opinion clear when he was asked at a press conference on the relationships between coaches and players.
– Such relationships are not healthy and we should not accept them. We operate in a professional environment where you have to perform and it should be a safe place. I think the player-coach relationship is very inappropriate, Wiegman said.
Head coach of the Finnish women’s national team Marko Saloranta says that he has noticed that the issue has been prominently in the headlines, especially in England, but also in the United States. Saloranta understands that people think about things differently and take a stand, but on the other hand, he has wondered about the prevailing discussion.
– In a way, I’m a bit sarcastic, because professional football is also a work environment. If you are a professional, you do your job professionally. In that sense, I don’t think it’s a relevant question at all. We don’t ask (about people’s personal relationships) in any other workplace or in different fields. That’s why I’ve been a little confused about that conversation and I don’t think it makes sense to join it, Saloranta commented.
Sainio says that he understands the position of both Wiegman and Saloranta. According to him, the issue is not black and white, but rather a difficult ethical issue. Sainio leans more towards the fact that the relationships between coaches and athletes are somewhat inappropriate, because it is about a certain kind of power that the coach has in relation to the players.
– It has to be approached from different angles. The first reaction is that no way. But on the other hand, in a professional environment where people do their jobs well, private life is private life. However, it must not affect the team under any circumstances, Sainio reflects.
– However, when there are people here, it’s hard to say that it’s really wrong.
The Chelsea coach’s comment was surprising
The head coaches of the English Super League agreed that relationships between player and coach don’t work out. A respected Chelsea pilot Emma Hayes added that the relationships between the players are also inappropriate, but apologized for his comments very next day.
– I disappointed myself. I think it was wrong to use the word inappropriate with the players. I don’t take my words back, but I don’t criticize the players in the dressing room for anything. “They’re professionals no matter who they’re in a relationship with,” Hayes said.
Sainio says that he was surprised by Hayes’ first comments, in which he condemned the relationships between the players as inappropriate – especially considering that there have been couples who have played in Chelsea, whose relationship has not affected the team’s operations negatively. Pernille Harder and Magdalena Eriksson starred for the team for years before moving together to Bayern Munich this season.
– I was surprised by Hayes’ comment, because for example Eriksson and Harder have done their jobs well, and it hasn’t affected anything. Maybe Hayes has some bad experiences. Of course, people also leave and have to be in the same work community afterwards.