It is the heartbreaking story of a gifted and standard footballer, her tragic death and the investigation into a family’s complaints about what they consider triggered her emotional anguish.
Maddy Cusack’s death in September despatched shockwaves all through the game and plunged Sheffield United into a state of mourning for his or her longest-serving participant. As her mother and father, David and Deborah, tried to get by means of their first Christmas with out their eldest daughter, followers launched a petition to retire her No 8 shirt as a everlasting tribute.
“She fell in love with Sheffield United, the fans and the city of Sheffield,” Deborah informed a memorial service in October. “Maddy became Miss Sheffield United and adored every minute of it. This was her home, the place she envisioned she would hang up her boots one day.”
Cusack began enjoying soccer on the age of 5 and hung out within the junior setups at Chesterfield, Nottingham Forest and Leicester City earlier than being taken on by Aston Villa and representing England’s under-19s. An energetic, tough-tackling midfielder, she went on to play for Birmingham City and Leicester City earlier than transferring to Sheffield, the place she grew to become the workforce’s first ladies’s participant to make greater than 100 appearances.
That every little thing ended so tragically has triggered immeasurable harm for Cusack’s family. It additionally led to the membership commissioning an investigation, on the family’s request, and an announcement from Bramall Lane shortly earlier than Christmas that “there was no evidence of any wrongdoing”.
What has by no means been reported, nonetheless, is what compelled the family to make an official grievance and what, they consider, led a beforehand completely happy 27-year-old to take her personal life.
Sheffield United paid tribute to Cusack on September 24 (George Wood/Getty Images)
Their grievance stretched to seven pages and greater than 3,350 phrases. It was written by David, an skilled solicitor, and particulars a wide selection of grievances referring to Cusack’s final seven months on the membership — coinciding with the appointment of Jonathan Morgan because the workforce’s supervisor.
“There were a number of factors that troubled her in the end, but they all spring from the relationship with JM (Morgan),” the grievance states. “As she confided to us (her family), every issue had its origin in JM’s appointment. We know she would still be with us had he not been appointed. Her text messages and conversations support this.”
The allegations have been critical sufficient for the membership to rearrange an exterior inquiry that concluded on December 15 with the chief government, Stephen Bettis, writing to Cusack’s family to verify no disciplinary motion was being taken in opposition to Morgan.
Morgan, who had beforehand been Cusack’s supervisor at Leicester, vehemently denied treating her unfavourably and has been vindicated by a nine-week inquiry. His account was that he had tried to be a optimistic affect in her life and that it was fully unfounded to recommend their working relationship had contributed to her emotional anguish and, finally, death.
RIP Maddy. A real skilled till the top. You can be missed by many 🕊️🕊️ https://t.co/6AcCNg5Emo
— JM (@jonnojmorgan) September 21, 2023
In a letter to the family, Bettis acknowledged that not one of the folks interviewed for the inquiry had “heard or witnessed any bullying or inappropriate behaviour” in direction of Cusack or every other participant. He did, nonetheless, acknowledge that Morgan’s behaviour “divided opinion” among the many folks interviewed. Some discovered him supportive and caring. Others described Morgan’s fashion of administration as “isolating some players, quite authoritative and intimidating”. According to the family, that was very a lot Cusack’s expertise as she reported it to them.
Against that backdrop, the English Football Association (FA) has subsequently begun to assemble proof forward of a potential investigation of its personal. The gamers’ union, the Professional Footballers’ Association, is known to be supporting the family and, with the matter ongoing, it additionally raises a wider debate that goes to the very coronary heart of what’s acceptable in a soccer surroundings and what’s not.
It has additionally transpired that Morgan, appointed in February final yr, has been the topic of two earlier complaints, unrelated to Cusack, together with one from one other United participant in direction of the top of final season. The membership is not going to focus on its end result.
The different case concerned a grievance being lodged in opposition to Morgan whereas he was teaching Leicester, the place one in every of his sisters, Jade, was the overall supervisor, one other, Holly, was the workforce captain, and their father, Rohan, was the chairman. The grievance, it’s understood, associated to alleged bullying and exclusion and was handled, for essentially the most half, by Jade. The participant in query left the membership after accepting a monetary settlement in relation to her contract, with the grievance not being taken additional. Morgan denied any wrongdoing in each circumstances.
In Cusack’s case, the family’s grievance alleged:
- Cusack left Leicester in 2019 as a result of she was satisfied Morgan, then the supervisor, had taken a private dislike to her and felt worn down by his behaviour.
- Morgan went on to handle Burnley’s ladies’s workforce and, when she performed in opposition to them for United, he referred to as her a “psycho” when she ran close to his dugout. She was not unduly bothered as a result of he was not her supervisor however noticed it as additional proof that he disliked her.
- His appointment at Sheffield United left her feeling anxious about their historical past however hopeful, as a longtime first-team participant, that they may put it behind them. Instead, he dropped her from the beginning line-up, complaining she was chubby, and allegedly informed different gamers about their earlier points, which she felt created the impression she was tough to handle.
- She feared historical past was repeating itself however stayed at Sheffield United due to her affinity with the membership and all the buddies she had made. She had purchased a home, taken jobs in United’s neighborhood and advertising and marketing departments, and loved her happiest occasions in soccer at Bramall Lane.
- She discovered it obscure the problems with Morgan as a result of she had by no means encountered any battle from earlier managers and was standard inside the membership.
- Cusack grew to become unwell as a results of the anxiousness it created, leading to her transferring again in with her mother and father, being prescribed medicine and asking the membership’s physician initially of September about counselling.
The grievance was delivered to the membership on September 27, a week after Cusack’s physique was discovered at her mother and father’ home in Derbyshire. An inquest has been opened into her death and the police say there aren’t any suspicious circumstances.
According to the family’s proof, Cusack had complained throughout quite a few conversations about feeling marginalised and encountering “personal antipathy” from Morgan in what has been described by some former team-mates as a powerful, divisive and sometimes hard-faced surroundings. This had a devastating influence on her psychological well being, her family say, breaking her confidence at a time when she had the pressures of juggling her enjoying profession with working for the membership as a advertising and marketing government.
Morgan in March 2023 (George Wood – The FA/The FA through Getty Images)
The membership took the grievance significantly sufficient to nominate Dennis Shotton, a retired detective superintendent from Northumbria police, to supervise an investigation.
Shotton, whose police profession concerned engaged on the Raoul Moat manhunt after the capturing of three folks, together with a policeman, all through the north east of England in 2010, was introduced in due to his position as an investigator for Safecall, a Sunderland-based firm specialising in whistleblowing disputes.
In his correspondence with the family, he misspelt Cusack’s first and second names, introducing her as “Madeline Cussack”, in addition to getting different names combined up and making a variety of primary errors. Shotton interviewed David Cusack for a witness assertion however didn’t document what was stated after which twice referred to him in his write-up as a membership worker somewhat than Maddy’s father.
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Shotton spoke to 18 witnesses, together with present members of the workforce. Each was assured their identities wouldn’t be made public, which means they may communicate extra overtly.
However, the choice course of has left the Cusack family with a variety of unanswered questions. Shotton, it’s stated, was given the small print of a shut confidante to Cusack who had no connections to the membership and, for causes unexplained, he didn’t contact the related individual. He can also be stated to not have contacted a few of the gamers the family advisable.
“I can confirm that Safecall carried out an investigation on behalf of Sheffield United,” says Safecall director Tim Smith. “We have no further comment at this time.”
Shotton’s inquiry checked out a variety of particular incidents, dismissing all of them, however the scope of his investigation stays unclear. The family argues that it appears to have centered an excessive amount of on what could possibly be corroborated by witnesses somewhat than their very own accounts of the quite a few conversations that they had with Cusack and that it doesn’t sufficiently take into account how she considered Morgan and the impact it had on her. One former team-mate remembers Cusack by no means being herself, seeming anxious and withdrawn, when Morgan was round.
The family reject the decision and, having been informed there is no such thing as a enchantment course of, they’ve requested the FA to hold out a follow-up investigation, taking into account a better want for transparency. The membership’s admission that Morgan could possibly be seen as intimidating, in addition to isolating sure gamers, feels notably related when this, based on the family, matches in with what Cusack used to inform them.
Bettis reiterated his sympathies for the family’s loss and stated the membership needed to help the charity basis that had been arrange in Cusack’s identify, elevating cash to assist younger, feminine footballers. But he additionally made it clear that the family wouldn’t be allowed to see Shotton’s report. Nor will or not it’s launched publicly, which means there is no such thing as a manner for them to seek out out what testimony was put ahead, who was interviewed and, maybe simply as importantly, who was not.
Although the family have declined to remark, this has been notably laborious for them to simply accept: that they may ask for the membership to carry an investigation however then be denied the proper to know what precisely is in that investigation, even on an anonymised foundation.
People who knew Cusack properly discuss an all-round athlete who was dedicated to health and wholesome dwelling and saved herself in supreme form, going again to her days as a gifted runner with Derbyshire’s Amber Valley & Erewash Athletics Club.
In 2021, she employed her personal energy and conditioning coach, Luke Ashton, who has labored with Leicester City and Mansfield Town, and he remembers her check outcomes being greater in some classes than the common of the England nationwide workforce.
“She was phenomenal,” says Ashton. “Everyone knows Maddy was a devoted and extremely dedicated athlete. Her application, effort levels and enthusiasm were second to none. For her to reach out to me when she already had such a demanding schedule just shows how dedicated she was.”
Cusack at Bramall Lane in October 2022 (Cameron Smith/The FA through Getty Images )
Morgan denies telling Cusack she was chubby and says he merely knowledgeable her she wanted to enhance her conditioning as a result of the membership’s GPS health checks had proven she was lagging behind most of her team-mates. He says he organized for a specifically tailor-made health programme, taking into account that she already had a tough schedule holding down two jobs.
Morgan’s place is that he had a regular and supportive working relationship with Cusack. He denies shouting that Cusack was a “psycho” whereas he was Burnley supervisor, telling the opposite Sheffield United gamers something detrimental about her from Leicester, or doing something to go away her with the impression that he disliked her.
On the opposite, he says he repeatedly tried to assist Cusack, making her vice-captain and placing her in contact with the membership physician when he suspected she was battling psychological well being points.
A video was submitted to the investigation exhibiting him and Cusack working collectively, apparently getting on effective, on May 5.
Morgan says he recurrently used to purchase Tesco meal offers (a sandwich, snack and a drink for a set worth) as lunch for the gamers, together with Cusack, as a result of there was a time when the membership didn’t present them with meals. He says he campaigned for her to get a pay rise, from an annual wage of £6,000 to £18,000 (now $7,700 to $23,000), when the membership was transferring from a part-time setup to a full-time one and the gamers’ contracts have been being upgraded. This, he says, exhibits he didn’t deal with her badly or maintain detrimental emotions in direction of her. It additionally seems that a few of the claims in opposition to him, equivalent to criticising her to team-mates after his appointment in Sheffield, haven’t been corroborated.
There is, nonetheless, appreciable proof to show why, to make use of the membership’s personal terminology, a few of the folks giving proof reported that Morgan might go away some gamers feeling remoted and intimidated.
The Athletic has spoken to a number of of Cusack’s former team-mates who speak negatively about their experiences of his administration. Although they didn’t witness any such behaviour in direction of Cusack, some allege it could possibly be a divisive and generally disagreeable surroundings wherein sure gamers have been favoured by Morgan whereas others have been blanked and, in some circumstances, nearly fully frozen out. They say they needed to speak — requesting anonymity due to the sensitivities of the case — as a result of they consider it’s going to encourage others to share their experiences.
One former team-mate, Player A, says she confided in Cusack that she needed to go away the membership due to the supervisor. She and Cusack secretly used jail puns as a type of gallows humour to maintain up their spirits. If they got enjoying time, they joked they have been “on parole”. Morgan was known as the “prison warden”.
Another of Cusack’s former team-mates, Player B, remembers Morgan getting the job and rapidly establishing a robust relationship with sure gamers, inviting them into his workplace and customarily being approachable and amenable. But she remembers seeing a completely different facet to him when it got here to a variety of gamers who have been a bit older on common and handled, she says, in a completely completely different trend.
“When Jonathan came in, there was almost a sense of a new beginning for some people. But others weren’t given a chance from the minute he stepped through the door,” says Player B.
“He wouldn’t make eye contact. He’d walk past in the training ground and say nothing. (Players were) getting the cold shoulder for pretty much no reason. If he decided he didn’t want you, that was it. He’s not going to give you the time of day, he’s not going to shake your hand, he’s not even going to make eye contact. You have no chance.”
Morgan talks to his Leicester workforce in November 2021 (Plumb Images/Leicester City FC through Getty Images)
Morgan is represented by Tongue Tied Management and his bio on the corporate’s web site lists “man-management” and “creating a positive environment” amongst his key strengths, in addition to “understanding players” and “conflict resolution”.
Bettis, nonetheless, acknowledges that Morgan’s administration fashion “divided opinion” and that additionally seems to have been the case at his earlier golf equipment.
Many gamers and colleagues noticed him as a optimistic chief with likeable attributes and a CV that earned him respect, taking Leicester into the Women’s Super League as champions of the second tier in 2020-21.
Yet one individual — not concerned within the Shotton investigation — remembers being with him at Leicester and discovering the expertise so distressing she would find yourself “crying most days” on her manner house. She, too, has spoken to The Athletic at size concerning the detrimental influence on her life. And, once more, it exhibits he might polarise opinion.
“Jonathan Morgan — the way he was and the culture he created — is the reason I’m not in football anymore,” she says.
In Cusack’s case, Player A says she seen her team-mate not appeared as completely happy as she had been below the earlier supervisor, Neil Redfearn. Cusack, she says, had began to “retreat a little bit” however tended to deflect questions when requested if she was OK.
“She was not the same as she was the year before his (Morgan’s) arrival. I knew she wasn’t a fan (of Morgan). When we were told his appointment was imminent, it was like, ‘Oh, f***, here we go’. It didn’t take long to realise there were obviously underlying issues because she was a starter for every Sheffield manager (previously).
“She’d captained when Redfearn was there and then, suddenly, to be dropped like that (clicks fingers). She was an experienced 27-year-old with 100 appearances for Sheffield. So why? We were in a relegation battle — you need all the experience and all the firepower you can get. It just didn’t make sense… this kind of instant dropping.”
Some gamers, based on Player A, appeared to have “disappeared off the face of the earth and not gone back to training” as a result of, she assumed, “that was how much they hated it”.
She continued: “He’d ignore certain people, while others would get hugs and high fives or lift-shares. If you were liked, you were fine. But if you weren’t liked, you were made to feel, and know, that you weren’t liked by how he spoke to you, or ignored you, or if you made one mistake and he was straight down on you.
“I would literally have to pull over on the way to training because I was crying so I could wipe my eyes and see where I was driving. I genuinely felt I had no value, not only as a player but as a person.”
Of Cusack, she added: “There were a lot (of players) last season who were in the same boat and it could have been any of us. It feels awful coming out of my mouth, but there were at least four or five players who were on that path and, fortunately, could escape it.”
Morgan has been reluctant to talk publicly, based on folks near him, due to the sensitivities surrounding the case and for concern of it inflicting additional upset for a family who’re, finally, grieving a beloved one. He has declined The Athletic’s request for an interview.
Instead, his administration firm has been coping with media inquiries on his behalf. He is claimed to have discovered it traumatic to be accused and feels vindicated, but not shocked, by Shotton’s findings.
There are, nonetheless, a variety of points arising from this case and, on a wider degree, it does result in a separate debate about a few of the accepted norms in a dressing-room surroundings and the way soccer, as a office, might be very completely different to different walks of life.
Morgan doesn’t deny that he could possibly be blunt along with his language, together with one dressing-room scene when one in every of his gamers broke down in tears after he recognized, and criticised, her for being responsible for one of many opposition’s objectives.
Even the individuals who communicate positively about Morgan describe him as being direct and to the purpose. There have been occasions when he might get indignant, in frequent with many soccer managers. However, he has all the time maintained that this didn’t contain Cusack, that it was by no means private with anybody, and that it was fairly regular for a supervisor to dish out some harsh phrases if the workforce have been doing badly.
In a lot of circumstances, there are members of his career, together with some extremely profitable managers, who’re championed for his or her occasional outbursts of mood and authoritarian fashion. Many golf equipment function “bomb squads” for gamers who’ve been frozen out and marginalised. It is, in some ways, an accepted a part of the soccer trade.
Sheffield United have been within the decrease reaches of the Women’s Championship final season, ending eighth in a 12-team league. It was, says Player B, a difficult marketing campaign in all kinds of how. “It didn’t feel like a team any more. It didn’t feel like people had each other’s backs. Some people didn’t know where they stood, others were like his (Morgan’s) best mate and in his office all the time.”
Cusack, from a family of Derby County followers, was in her sixth season at Bramall Lane and her recognition might be gauged by the quantity of tributes after her death. Her family say they’ve been overwhelmed by the general public’s kindness and, having arrange the Maddy Cusack Foundation in November, the response of United’s followers, particularly.
United’s males’s workforce put on Cusack’s quantity in her honour (Darren Staples/AFP through Getty Images)
“Those who knew Maddy well will be aware she had no long-standing mental health issues or troubles,” learn a social media publish from the inspiration. “Maddy was a happy-go-lucky, carefree girl with everything to live for and, by last Christmas (2022), could be described as being at her happiest. This all changed gradually from February.”
Some folks will inevitably ask why, if she grew to become so sad, she didn’t attempt to discover one other membership.
Cusack, who was out and in of Morgan’s workforce, signed a one-year contract on the finish of June forward of the membership’s transition to a full-time operation. She did that, based on her family, as a result of she had settled in Sheffield, didn’t want to go away a membership she beloved, and had the monetary pressures and obligations of being a house owner.
Her family say that they had quite a few conversations with her concerning the influence her work life was having on her confidence and well being. The family’s grievance says Cusack and her mom mentioned most of the points about Morgan usually. Maddy determined, they are saying, to not do something which may threat upsetting her supervisor. One colleague, it’s stated, was conscious of how Cusack felt and informed her to “kill him with kindness”.
Instead, her death has left the Cusack family — together with Maddy’s brother, Richard, and sisters, Olivia and Felicia — attempting to return to phrases with what her mom has described as an “unthinkable, unimaginable and unbearable” loss.
A number of pictures we mirrored on throughout our @itvnews tribute for Maddy earlier at present.
It by no means mattered the place we have been or what we have been doing. As lengthy as we have been collectively, as a family.. we have been completely happy. ❤️
Moments to final a lifetime, held in our hearts.
Your greatest followers #MC8 pic.twitter.com/Ak3TUw1RN6
— themaddycusackfoundation (@MC8_Foundation) November 9, 2023
Morgan’s sympathisers say that he, too, has suffered and that his family have discovered it extremely tough to see his identify connected to such a heartbreaking story.
This weekend, nonetheless, he can be again within the dugout when United, eighth within the Women’s Championship, journey to London for an FA Women’s Cup fourth-round tie in opposition to Tottenham Hotspur. It can be his first look within the dugout since a 1-0 victory over Lewes on September 17, sitting out 11 fixtures whereas the investigation was underway.
In a assertion printed on United’s web site on December 18, the membership introduced the investigation had been accomplished and, with out mentioning Morgan as soon as, stated they needed “to increase the learning and development opportunities for all staff around language and culture, welfare and mental health awareness”.
The membership have been “always looking for ways to evolve and will reflect on the outcomes and recommendations arising from the investigation to consider how processes and policies may be improved”.
What has not been made clear is whether or not these suggestions discuss with Morgan particularly or simply the membership normally. Nor is that prone to change given United is not going to let anyone know, together with the family.
That, nonetheless, is unlikely to be the top of the matter.
David Matthews, the FA’s senior integrity investigations supervisor, has already began interviewing Cusack’s shut family members, in addition to visiting the membership, as a part of the governing physique’s evidence-gathering course of. If that results in a new investigation, it might take a wider scope than Shotton’s inquiry and look at Morgan’s time at Leicester and Burnley.
Even then, nonetheless, it’s unclear whether or not United will move over the small print of their very own report back to the FA’s investigators.
The membership have been requested by The Athletic, amongst a variety of questions referring to the case, however declined to reply apart from referring again to their earlier assertion. “The independent investigation commissioned by the club at the request of, and in cooperation with, Maddy’s family concluded in December,” stated a membership spokesman. “The valuable input provided by the key witnesses put forward by Maddy’s family and by the club was thoroughly reviewed and no evidence of wrongdoing was found.”
In the meantime, the membership’s chaplain, Delroy Hall, has resigned from his position. Among a variety of wide-ranging complaints, Hall knowledgeable the membership that he felt ignored by a variety of folks in senior positions after he, an skilled counsellor, tried to assist employees deal with their grief in gentle of Cusack’s death.
To contact the Samaritans, go to samaritans.org or name 116 123 within the UK, and to succeed in CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) go to thecalmzone.internet or ring 0800 58 58 58
(Top picture: Jacques Feeney/The FA/Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
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