Leicester City has dismissed manager Willie Kirk after conducting an inquiry into an accusation regarding his involvement in a relationship with a player.
Kirk, aged 45, was placed on suspension by the Women’s Super League club earlier this month to support an internal procedure.
The Scottish manager has been absent from the touchline for the last three matches.
“Willie was determined to have breached the team’s code of conduct to a degree that makes his position untenable,” Leicester said in a statement.
The club received a complaint about a reported ongoing relationship between Kirk and a player.
BBC Sport has reached out to Kirk for a response regarding the accusation.
The timeline leading to Kirk’s sacking
After Kirk’s suspension, assistant manager Jennifer Foster and first-team coach Stephen Kirby assumed control for the Women’s FA Cup quarter-final against Liverpool on 9 March.
The Foxes secured a 2-0 victory, propelling them into the competition’s semi-finals for the first time.
However, Leicester suffered defeats in their two subsequent matches against Tottenham and Brighton in the WSL.
Foster and Kirby will continue to lead the team while Leicester seeks a new permanent manager.
Former Everton manager Kirk joined the WSL club in the summer of 2022, initially as a director of football before taking over as head coach from Lydia Bedford in November of the same year.
Under his guidance last season, Leicester climbed from the bottom of the WSL to safety, and they occupied seventh place in the table this season before his suspension.
Leicester said the code of conduct which they found Kirk to have breached was “established and implemented” before the 2023-24 season.
“The code forms part of the club’s ongoing commitment to professionalising the women’s game since the takeover of LCFC Women in 2020, promoting a performance-led culture among players, coaches and technical staff,” Leicester added.
Their decision, announced on Thursday, comes amid scrutiny and recent condemnation of player-coach relationships in women’s football.
In February, former Leicester manager Jonathan Morgan was sacked by Sheffield United after “new information came to light about his conduct” before he joined the club.
Morgan’s former management agency ended their relationship with him and said in a statement it had “learnt new information regarding Jonathan Morgan and a relationship with a player”.
Why player-coach relationships in women’s football remain an issue
Player-coach relationships are permissible within the bounds of the law, provided they do not involve minors, though they may violate codes of conduct.
Clubs seeking a WSL licence must adhere to codes of conduct for players and managers, with each club required to appoint a safeguarding officer.
Personal connections between players and coaches in women’s football have drawn criticism for their potential to create imbalances of power within a squad.
England manager Sarina Wiegman has characterized such relationships as “highly inappropriate” and “unhealthy.”
Several WSL managers, including Carla Ward of Aston Villa and Robert Vilahamn of Tottenham, have expressed views that player-coach relationships constitute misconduct.
Ward, prior to Kirk’s dismissal, asserted that a relationship between a manager and a player should unequivocally result in the termination of the team leader’s employment.
Baroness Campbell, the Football Association’s director of women’s football, expressed concerns about player-coach relationships in 2018.
Relationship issues contributed to Mark Sampson’s dismissal as England manager in 2017, following what the FA termed “inappropriate and unacceptable behavior” with players during his tenure at Bristol Academy.
Same-sex relationships among players are prevalent in the sport, particularly since the WSL only transitioned to professional status in 2018.