Neville in trouble for sexist tweets

CAIRO - 25 January 2018: It has not yet been 24 hours since Philip Neville’s appointment as coach of England's women’s team and he already had problems.

On Tuesday, the Federation of English football appointed Phil Neville as the new coach of the women's national football team until 2021 and immediately a viral controversy broke out. What was not expected, were the reasons for this controversy.


Neville's appointment was somewhat controversial anyway because of his lack of experience as coach, the women’s team is his debut managerial role, however a number of ‘macho’ comments released through his Twitter account years ago have inflamed further debate about his role.

The British newspaper Daily Star brought the tweets to light; Neville’s response was to delete the tweets and deactivate his account instantly.

However, nothing is really ever deleted on the internet:

Phil Neville may have deleted his Twitter account but we've got it.

Time to resign, Phil. pic.twitter.com/Le8QHMVgK1

— Clive Gritt MBE (@TheCliveGritt) January 23, 2018

"Relax, I'm quiet again, I just hit my wife !!! I feel better now!" wrote Phil in July 2011. Six months later, in January 2012, he tweeted: "When I said morning men I thought the women would have been busy preparing breakfast\getting kids ready\making the beds-sorry women!"

The Daily Star recovered the different offensive comments towards women. The last, in December 2012, was addressed to his sister: "You women always want equality until the time comes to pay the bills."

Phil Neville’s tenure as coach of the women’s team seems off to a bad start. The women's team have not had much luck in respect to their coaches as the previous coach was also surrounded by controversy.

Mark Sampson, Neville's predecessor, was accused of racism by forward Eni Aluko and was also dismissed for "inappropriate behavior" at an earlier stage in his career at the Bristol Academy.