It’s the heartbreaking story of a proficient and well-liked footballer, her tragic loss of life and the investigation right into a household’s complaints about what they imagine brought on her emotional anguish.
Maddy Cusack’s loss of life in September despatched shockwaves all through the game and plunged Sheffield United right 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 followers and the town of Sheffield,” Deborah instructed a memorial service in October. “Maddy turned Miss Sheffield United and adored each minute of it. This was her house, the place she envisioned she would dangle up her boots someday.”
Cusack began taking part in soccer on the age of 5 and hung out within the junior setups at Chesterfield, Nottingham Forest and Leicester Metropolis earlier than being taken on by Aston Villa and representing England’s under-19s. An lively, tough-tackling midfielder, she went on to play for Birmingham Metropolis and Leicester Metropolis earlier than shifting to Sheffield, the place she turned the crew’s first girls’s participant to make greater than 100 appearances.
That all the things ended so tragically has brought on immeasurable damage for Cusack’s household. It additionally led to the membership commissioning an investigation, on the household’s request, and an announcement from Bramall Lane shortly earlier than Christmas that “there was no proof of any wrongdoing”.
What has by no means been reported, nevertheless, is what compelled the household to make an official grievance and what, they imagine, led a beforehand pleased 27-year-old to take her personal life.
Sheffield United paid tribute to Cusack on September 24 (George Wooden/Getty Photographs)
Their grievance stretched to seven pages and greater than 3,350 phrases. It was written by David, an skilled solicitor, and particulars a variety of grievances referring to Cusack’s final seven months on the membership — coinciding with the appointment of Jonathan Morgan because the crew’s supervisor.
“There have been a lot of elements that troubled her ultimately, however all of them spring from the connection with JM (Morgan),” the grievance states. “As she confided to us (her household), each situation had its origin in JM’s appointment. We all know she would nonetheless be with us had he not been appointed. Her textual content messages and conversations help this.”
The allegations have been severe sufficient for the membership to rearrange an exterior inquiry that concluded on December 15 with the chief govt, Stephen Bettis, writing to Cusack’s household 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 constructive affect in her life and that it was fully unfounded to counsel their working relationship had contributed to her emotional anguish and, in the end, loss of life.
RIP Maddy. A real skilled till the top. You’ll be missed by many 🕊️🕊️ https://t.co/6AcCNg5Emo
— JM (@jonnojmorgan) September 21, 2023
In a letter to the household, Bettis acknowledged that not one of the individuals interviewed for the inquiry had “heard or witnessed any bullying or inappropriate behaviour” in direction of Cusack or every other participant. He did, nevertheless, acknowledge that Morgan’s behaviour “divided opinion” among the many individuals interviewed. Some discovered him supportive and caring. Others described Morgan’s fashion of administration as “isolating some gamers, fairly authoritative and intimidating”. In response to the household, that was very a lot Cusack’s expertise as she reported it to them.
Towards that backdrop, the English Soccer Affiliation (FA) has subsequently begun to assemble proof forward of a doable investigation of its personal. The gamers’ union, the Skilled Footballers’ Affiliation, is known to be supporting the household 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 atmosphere 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 won’t focus on its final result.
The opposite case concerned a grievance being lodged in opposition to Morgan whereas he was teaching Leicester, the place certainly one of his sisters, Jade, was the overall supervisor, one other, Holly, was the crew 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 instances.
In Cusack’s case, the household’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 girls’s crew 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 might put it behind them. As a substitute, he dropped her from the beginning line-up, complaining she was obese, and allegedly instructed 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 group and advertising 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 well-liked throughout the membership.
- Cusack turned unwell because of the anxiousness it created, leading to her shifting again in along with her mother and father, being prescribed remedy and asking the membership’s physician initially of September about counselling.
The grievance was delivered to the membership on September 27, per week after Cusack’s physique was discovered at her mother and father’ home in Derbyshire. An inquest has been opened into her loss of life and the police say there aren’t any suspicious circumstances.
In response to the household’s proof, Cusack had complained throughout quite a few conversations about feeling marginalised and encountering “private antipathy” from Morgan in what has been described by some former team-mates as a troublesome, divisive and infrequently hard-faced atmosphere. This had a devastating affect on her psychological well being, her household say, breaking her confidence at a time when she had the pressures of juggling her taking part in profession with working for the membership as a advertising govt.
Morgan in March 2023 (George Wooden – The FA/The FA by way of Getty Photographs)
The membership took the grievance severely 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 individuals, together with a policeman, all through the north east of England in 2010, was introduced in due to his function as an investigator for Safecall, a Sunderland-based firm specialising in whistleblowing disputes.
In his correspondence with the household, he misspelt Cusack’s first and second names, introducing her as “Madeline Cussack”, in addition to getting different names combined up and making a lot of fundamental 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 slightly than Maddy’s father.
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Shotton spoke to 18 witnesses, together with present members of the crew. Every was assured their identities wouldn’t be made public, that means they might communicate extra overtly.
Nonetheless, the choice course of has left the Cusack household with a lot of unanswered questions. Shotton, it’s stated, was given the small print of a detailed confidante to Cusack who had no connections to the membership and, for causes unexplained, he didn’t contact the related individual. He’s additionally stated to not have contacted among the gamers the household advisable.
“I can affirm that Safecall carried out an investigation on behalf of Sheffield United,” says Safecall director Tim Smith. “Now we have no additional remark right now.”
Shotton’s inquiry checked out a lot of particular incidents, dismissing all of them, however the scope of his investigation stays unclear. The household argues that it appears to have targeted an excessive amount of on what might be corroborated by witnesses slightly than their very own accounts of the quite a few conversations that they had with Cusack and that it doesn’t sufficiently keep in mind 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 household reject the decision and, having been instructed there isn’t any enchantment course of, they’ve requested the FA to hold out a follow-up investigation, considering a higher want for transparency. The membership’s admission that Morgan might be seen as intimidating, in addition to isolating sure gamers, feels significantly related when this, in accordance with the household, matches in with what Cusack used to inform them.
Bettis reiterated his sympathies for the household’s loss and stated the membership wished to help the charity basis that had been arrange in Cusack’s title, elevating cash to assist younger, feminine footballers. However he additionally made it clear that the household wouldn’t be allowed to see Shotton’s report. Nor will or not it’s launched publicly, that means there isn’t any approach for them to seek out out what testimony was put ahead, who was interviewed and, maybe simply as importantly, who was not.
Though the household have declined to remark, this has been significantly laborious for them to simply accept: that they might ask for the membership to carry an investigation however then be denied the fitting to know what precisely is in that investigation, even on an anonymised foundation.
Individuals who knew Cusack nicely discuss an all-round athlete who was dedicated to health and wholesome dwelling and stored herself in supreme form, going again to her days as a proficient runner with Derbyshire’s Amber Valley & Erewash Athletics Membership.
In 2021, she employed her personal energy and conditioning coach, Luke Ashton, who has labored with Leicester Metropolis and Mansfield City, and he remembers her take a look at outcomes being increased in some classes than the typical of the England nationwide crew.
“She was phenomenal,” says Ashton. “Everybody is aware of Maddy was a loyal and intensely devoted athlete. Her utility, effort ranges and enthusiasm have been second to none. For her to achieve out to me when she already had such a demanding schedule simply exhibits how devoted she was.”
Cusack at Bramall Lane in October 2022 (Cameron Smith/The FA by way of Getty Photographs )
Morgan denies telling Cusack she was obese and says he merely knowledgeable her she wanted to enhance her conditioning as a result of the membership’s GPS health assessments had proven she was lagging behind most of her team-mates. He says he organized for a specifically tailor-made health programme, considering that she already had a tough schedule holding down two jobs.
Morgan’s place is that he had a traditional 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 unfavourable about her from Leicester, or doing something to go away her with the impression that he disliked her.
Quite 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 fighting psychological well being points.
A video was submitted to the investigation displaying him and Cusack working collectively, apparently getting on nice, on Could 5.
Morgan says he frequently used to purchase Tesco meal offers (a sandwich, snack and a drink for a set value) 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 shifting 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 unfavourable emotions in direction of her. It additionally seems that among the claims in opposition to him, akin to criticising her to team-mates after his appointment in Sheffield, haven’t been corroborated.
There may be, nevertheless, appreciable proof to reveal why, to make use of the membership’s personal terminology, among the individuals giving proof reported that Morgan might depart 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. Though they didn’t witness any such behaviour in direction of Cusack, some allege it might be a divisive and typically disagreeable atmosphere during which sure gamers have been favoured by Morgan whereas others have been blanked and, in some instances, nearly fully frozen out. They are saying they wished to speak — requesting anonymity due to the sensitivities of the case — as a result of they imagine it’ll encourage others to share their experiences.
One former team-mate, Participant A, says she confided in Cusack that she wished 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. In the event that they got taking part in time, they joked they have been “on parole”. Morgan was known as the “jail warden”.
One other of Cusack’s former team-mates, Participant 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. However she remembers seeing a unique aspect to him when it got here to a lot of gamers who have been a bit older on common and handled, she says, in a completely completely different trend.
“When Jonathan got here in, there was nearly a way of a brand new starting for some individuals. However others weren’t given an opportunity from the minute he stepped by means of the door,” says Participant B.
“He wouldn’t make eye contact. He’d stroll previous within the coaching floor and say nothing. (Gamers have been) getting the chilly shoulder for just about no motive. If he determined he didn’t need you, that was it. He’s not going to provide the time of day, he’s not going to shake your hand, he’s not even going to make eye contact. You haven’t any likelihood.”
Morgan talks to his Leicester crew in November 2021 (Plumb Photographs/Leicester Metropolis FC by way of Getty Photographs)
Morgan is represented by Tongue Tied Administration and his bio on the corporate’s web site lists “man-management” and “making a constructive atmosphere” amongst his key strengths, in addition to “understanding gamers” and “battle decision”.
Bettis, nevertheless, 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 constructive chief with likeable attributes and a CV that earned him respect, taking Leicester into the Girls’s Tremendous League as champions of the second tier in 2020-21.
But 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 approach house. She, too, has spoken to The Athletic at size in regards to the unfavourable affect on her life. And, once more, it exhibits he might polarise opinion.
“Jonathan Morgan — the way in which he was and the tradition he created — is the rationale I’m not in soccer anymore,” she says.
In Cusack’s case, Participant A says she observed her team-mate not appeared as pleased as she had been below the earlier supervisor, Neil Redfearn. Cusack, she says, had began to “retreat just a little bit” however tended to deflect questions when requested if she was OK.
“She was not the identical as she was the yr earlier than his (Morgan’s) arrival. I knew she wasn’t a fan (of Morgan). After we have been instructed his appointment was imminent, it was like, ‘Oh, f***, right here we go’. It didn’t take lengthy to grasp there have been clearly underlying points as a result of she was a starter for each Sheffield supervisor (beforehand).
“She’d captained when Redfearn was there after which, all of the sudden, to be dropped like that (clicks fingers). She was an skilled 27-year-old with 100 appearances for Sheffield. So why? We have been in a relegation battle — you want all of the expertise and all of the firepower you may get. It simply didn’t make sense… this sort of on the spot dropping.”
Some gamers, in accordance with Participant A, appeared to have “disappeared off the face of the earth and never gone again to coaching” as a result of, she assumed, “that was how a lot they hated it”.
She continued: “He’d ignore sure individuals, whereas others would get hugs and excessive fives or lift-shares. If you happen to have been favored, you have been nice. However if you happen to weren’t favored, you have been made to really feel, and know, that you simply weren’t favored by how he spoke to you, or ignored you, or if you happen to made one mistake and he was straight down on you.
“I might actually have to tug over on the way in which to coaching as a result of I used to be crying so I might wipe my eyes and see the place I used to be driving. I genuinely felt I had no worth, not solely as a participant however as an individual.”
Of Cusack, she added: “There have been loads (of gamers) final season who have been in the identical boat and it might have been any of us. It feels terrible popping out of my mouth, however there have been at the very least 4 or 5 gamers who have been on that path and, thankfully, might escape it.”
Morgan has been reluctant to talk publicly, in accordance with individuals near him, due to the sensitivities surrounding the case and for worry of it inflicting additional upset for a household who’re, in the end, grieving a cherished one. He has declined The Athletic’s request for an interview.
As a substitute, his administration firm has been coping with media inquiries on his behalf. He’s stated to have discovered it traumatic to be accused and feels vindicated, but not stunned, by Shotton’s findings.
There are, nevertheless, a lot of points arising from this case and, on a wider degree, it does result in a separate debate about among the accepted norms in a dressing-room atmosphere and the way soccer, as a office, could be very completely different to different walks of life.
Morgan doesn’t deny that he might be blunt together with his language, together with one dressing-room scene when certainly one of his gamers broke down in tears after he recognized, and criticised, her for being guilty for one of many opposition’s targets.
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. Nonetheless, 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 crew have been doing badly.
In a variety of instances, there are members of his occupation, 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’s, in some ways, an accepted a part of the soccer trade.
Sheffield United have been within the decrease reaches of the Girls’s Championship final season, ending eighth in a 12-team league. It was, says Participant B, a difficult marketing campaign in all kinds of how. “It didn’t really feel like a crew any extra. It didn’t really feel like individuals had one another’s backs. Some individuals didn’t know the place they stood, others have been like his (Morgan’s) greatest mate and in his workplace on a regular basis.”
Cusack, from a household of Derby County followers, was in her sixth season at Bramall Lane and her reputation could be gauged by the quantity of tributes after her loss of life. Her household say they’ve been overwhelmed by the general public’s kindness and, having arrange the Maddy Cusack Basis in November, the response of United’s followers, particularly.
United’s males’s crew put on Cusack’s quantity in her honour (Darren Staples/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
“Those that knew Maddy nicely can be conscious she had no long-standing psychological well being points or troubles,” learn a social media publish from the muse. “Maddy was a happy-go-lucky, carefree woman with all the things to stay for and, by final Christmas (2022), might be described as being at her happiest. This all modified progressively from February.”
Some individuals will inevitably ask why, if she turned so sad, she didn’t attempt to discover one other membership.
Cusack, who was out and in of Morgan’s crew, signed a one-year contract on the finish of June forward of the membership’s transition to a full-time operation. She did that, in accordance with her household, as a result of she had settled in Sheffield, didn’t wish to depart a membership she cherished, and had the monetary pressures and obligations of being a house owner.
Her household say that they had quite a few conversations along with her in regards to the affect her work life was having on her confidence and well being. The household’s grievance says Cusack and her mom mentioned lots of the points about Morgan typically. Maddy determined, they are saying, to not do something that may threat upsetting her supervisor. One colleague, it’s stated, was conscious of how Cusack felt and instructed her to “kill him with kindness”.
As a substitute, her loss of life has left the Cusack household — together with Maddy’s brother, Richard, and sisters, Olivia and Felicia — making an attempt to come back to phrases with what her mom has described as an “unthinkable, unimaginable and insufferable” 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. So long as we have been collectively, as a household.. we have been pleased. ❤️
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 household have discovered it extremely tough to see his title hooked up to such a heartbreaking story.
This weekend, nevertheless, he can be again within the dugout when United, eighth within the Girls’s Championship, journey to London for an FA Girls’s Cup fourth-round tie in opposition to Tottenham Hotspur. It will likely 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 press release revealed 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 wished “to extend the educational and growth alternatives for all employees round language and tradition, welfare and psychological well being consciousness”.
The membership have been “all the time searching for methods to evolve and can replicate on the outcomes and proposals arising from the investigation to think about how processes and insurance policies could also be improved”.
What has not been made clear is whether or not these suggestions check with Morgan particularly or simply the membership typically. Neither is that more likely to change given United won’t let anyone know, together with the household.
That, nevertheless, 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 kinfolk, in addition to visiting the membership, as a part of the governing physique’s evidence-gathering course of. If that results in a brand new investigation, it could take a wider scope than Shotton’s inquiry and look at Morgan’s time at Leicester and Burnley.
Even then, nevertheless, it’s unclear whether or not United will cross 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 lot of questions referring to the case, however declined to reply apart from referring again to their earlier assertion. “The impartial investigation commissioned by the membership on the request of, and in cooperation with, Maddy’s household concluded in December,” stated a membership spokesman. “The precious enter offered by the important thing witnesses put ahead by Maddy’s household and by the membership was totally reviewed and no proof of wrongdoing was discovered.”
Within the meantime, the membership’s chaplain, Delroy Corridor, has resigned from his function. Amongst a lot of wide-ranging complaints, Corridor knowledgeable the membership that he felt ignored by a lot of individuals in senior positions after he, an skilled counsellor, tried to assist employees deal with their grief in mild of Cusack’s loss of life.
To contact the Samaritans, go to samaritans.org or name 116 123 within the UK, and to achieve CALM (Marketing campaign Towards Dwelling Miserably) go to thecalmzone.net or ring 0800 58 58 58
(Prime picture: Jacques Feeney/The FA/Getty Photographs; design: Eamonn Dalton)
