New England women’s soccer coach Phil Neville deletes Twitter account in ‘sexist’ row

No sooner had Phil Neville been appointed the new head coach of the England women’s soccer team on Tuesday than he found himself facing criticism for “sexist” tweets.

A message from Neville’s long-standing Twitter handle @fizzer18 on December 3, 2012, said: “U women of [sic] always wanted equality until it comes to paying the bills #hypocrites”.

Another that same year had the former Manchester United, Everton and England defender appearing to say: “Morning men couple of hours cricket be4 [before] work sets me up nicely for the day”.

Asked why he had only referred to men in his message, a reply on the account of Neville – an ex-England schoolboy cricketer – said: “When I said morning men I thought the women would of [sic] been busy preparing breakfast/getting kids ready/making the beds-sorry morning women!”

Neville, who has yet to confirm or deny if he sent the contentious messages, appeared to have deleted his Twitter account on Tuesday.

The old posts came to light again barely hours after Neville was appointed by the Football Association on a contract that will run until the end of the 2021 Uefa Women’s Championships.

They provided fresh embarrassment for English football’s governing body, with the 41-year-old Neville only replacing Mark Sampson after the former women’s team, manager was sacked in September over allegations of misconduct in a previous role and amid a racism row that led to widespread criticism of senior FA officials.

“I am honoured to be given the chance to lead England. With the new coaching team we are putting in place, we can help the players build on their great progress in recent years,” Neville said.

England hope to stage the 2021 European Championships, with Neville taking over a team that reached the last four of the 2017 Euros and is now third in the world rankings, behind only women’s superpowers the United States and Germany.

His appointment is sure to raise question marks about the FA’s procedures given he has never previously worked in the women’s game.

However, Neville insisted: “This squad is on the verge of something special and I believe I can lead them to the next level.”

Neville, who holds the Uefa Pro Licence, has worked as a coach at United and with the England Under-21 side since retiring as a player.

He also had some involvement at Valencia while his brother Gary, also a former United and England player, was briefly in charge of the Spanish side from 2015-2016.