Obituary: Matt Beard, the dedicated lynchpin of the women’s game

This was not a world people got into for money or acclaim. It may now be possible to achieve those things, but that is only thanks to the years people spent building the sport from the ground up. The time and effort put in came to form a community that remains fiercely loyal to each other. Matt Beard was a lynchpin of that world. Over the weekend, he passed away suddenly at the age of 47.

Beard’s was not a name that casual followers of the women’s game would necessarily be familiar with. For someone so ubiquitous on the sidelines, he never attracted the same attention as some of his peers. Yet he can arguably claim to be the most influential manager English women’s football has ever had.

Beard grew up in south London, as part of a footballing family with his older brother Mark playing professionally. His first steps into women’s football came at Charlton, where he was Keith Boanas’s assistant. At the time, Charlton were one of the best sides in the country, but the women’s team were cut when the men’s were relegated and Boanas and Beard moved on to Millwall.

Coming up against budgetary challenges would be a theme of Beard’s career, as he took management roles at Millwall and then Chelsea. He took Chelsea to their first ever FA Cup final in 2012, with players like Gemma Bonner, Kate Longhurst and Claire Rafferty, who Beard would work with repeatedly throughout his career.

Those long-term relationships with players would be another theme. He inspired an almost incomparable level of loyalty from those who played under him. They would follow him across the country to work with him. Some, like Katie Stengel who played under Beard at Boston Breakers and again at Liverpool, would follow him across the world.

When he took the managerial job at Burnley this summer, it was striking how many of his old Liverpool side were willing to drop down to play in the third division. That was ‘Beardy’. Players always wanted to turn up for him. They would go the extra mile because they knew he would do the same for them.

His unwavering faith in his players made sense because he had a keen eye for talent. Working at clubs without the kind of budgets to make splashy acquisitions, his recruitment often had an all or nothing approach.

Take his decision to sign Olivia Smith last summer. Her transfer fee of £250,000 took up all of the budget that Liverpool offered to him, which was a pittance given the stature of the club. She spent a season as their star – although the club sacked Beard halfway through the season – and recouped four times that amount when she was sold to Arsenal a year on as the first million-pound women’s footballer.

Liverpool is the club Beard will remain most closely associated with, having spent two stints there. He won the WSL title in back-to-back years in 2013 and 2014. They remain the only club outside of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City to have managed it and only Emma Hayes has more WSL titles than Beard. He returned to the club after their relegation to the second division and immediately steered them back to top-flight football in 2021. Yet arguably his most impressive achievement with them was their fourth placed finish in 2023/24, keeping up with the biggest clubs in the league when realistically, given what was at his disposal, he had no right to.

When his passing was announced, the outpouring of affection was immediate. What was clear amongst the shock was how deeply he had touched every corner of the world of women’s football. From former players, to managers, to journalists, everyone had a story about what Beard had done for them. It might have been sitting down with a pint in the pub after a match or a phone call to check in when life was tough.

“The impact Matt had on so many he will sadly never truly know,” wrote Canada manager Casey Stoney on Instagram. “He was a fierce supporter of the women’s game when no-one cared, he was a manager that cared deeply for his players, he was a friend that could always make you laugh on the darkest of days.”

Speaking on receipt of her Yashin Award at the Ballon d’Or ceremony, Chelsea goalkeeper Hannah Hampton also paid tribute to Beard.

“Matt was someone who cared an awful lot for the women’s game before no one else did. He lit up the room when everyone was in it.

“And it’s just a message to show that not everyone should have to go through these dark moments alone. Sometimes the brightest smiles in the room hide the heaviest pain, and he’ll be greatly missed.”

The dedication to the game that Beard showed can be seen in the legacies that he left at all of his clubs. All of them ended up better off after his stints there, a rare feat for a manager working in the game for almost two decades, but a tribute to the work that he was able to do both on and off the pitch. It is a great loss to women’s football that he is no longer around to continue that.

His push for clubs to do more, his ability to inspire players to give more, and his support of all of those around them will be deeply missed. His life is a reminder of where women’s football has grown from and where in lots of places it still is. Because for all the glitz and the glamour that exists at the very top of the game, there remain hundreds of people striving for women’s football where there still is little money or acclaim. Living out life on England’s motorways.

Photograph by Liverpool FC/Getty Images