RIP Maddy Cusack

Demon Barber

Full Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2022
Messages
646
I know this is the United Women's board, but I feel it is fitting to pay our respects to the Sheffield United player who has passed away, aged 27.

No causes have been given yet. The United Women's team have sent a message of condolence.

RIP
 
Very sad. My thoughts are with her family, friends and those who knew her. RIP
 
This was horrible to read on twitter. Lost for words really. Rest in peace, Maddy.
 
Oh my goodness this is terrible. 27 years old :(
 
Clubs need to focus on the mental health of players, especially in these times with how much interaction the players have with fans on social media. The pressure must be immense.
 
So sad to hear. It must be incredibly tough to be a footballer at that level and having to put so much into football but also know you have to maintain a full time profession to succeed. Hopefully stories like these make the authorities give more support than is currently given.
 
Paid 6k a year to play football professionally. That can't be right.
 
Adisa said:
Paid 6k a year to play football professionally. That can't be right.
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Came to this thread to make a comment about that. Sounds so tragic that I can’t even believe it’s even remotely true. I wasn’t expecting anything spectacular, but I thought £15-20k at the very least for the year for a second division footballer.

If it is indeed true, then I don’t see how it would be even worth it. Sure you get paid to play and train football, but getting one injury can jeopardise everything.
 
Adisa said:
Paid 6k a year to play football professionally. That can't be right.
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It's not professional, she played for Sheffield United in the Women's Championship which is semi pro so you get paid but barely - only the top division is pro

that's the issue - lots of pressure to train, perform etc but they still need another full time job to make ends meet
 
I don’t know how anyone wouldn’t be stressed having to do a full time job, stressful enough in its own right without having strict regime of training and playing. For 6k a year.
clubs need to review how they operate women’s teams
 
Hernandez - BFA said:
Came to this thread to make a comment about that. Sounds so tragic that I can’t even believe it’s even remotely true. I wasn’t expecting anything spectacular, but I thought £15-20k at the very least for the year for a second division footballer.

If it is indeed true, then I don’t see how it would be even worth it. Sure you get paid to play and train football, but getting one injury can jeopardise everything.
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That's just terrible - also remember she was lucky in one sense because her "other" job was working for the club. Just imagine if a football injury also affected your ability to work in your other job.

I gave up playing five a side football because of the threat of injuries affecting my job - that was a simple choice and no big deal for me, but It's ridiculous that female players in the top 2 tiers of women's football are in the same position. Football should be paying them enough (in a short career) to take away immediate financial pressure like that.

Whilst I know full equality of pay may take a while to achieve - Male players should be making a contribution to ensure women's players aren't in a position like this.
 
Hernandez - BFA said:
Came to this thread to make a comment about that. Sounds so tragic that I can’t even believe it’s even remotely true. I wasn’t expecting anything spectacular, but I thought £15-20k at the very least for the year for a second division footballer.

If it is indeed true, then I don’t see how it would be even worth it. Sure you get paid to play and train football, but getting one injury can jeopardise everything.
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That's pretty normal at Championship level, it's officially a semi-pro League and until the past couple of years most teams were.

Now though, more teams are switching to longer training times or going full-time. Some players end up overall on less money as a result and may have to decide whether or not to leave football or at least that club. Others will be delighted to go full-time - even at minimum wage on a zero hours contract. A lot depends on where you are in life, mortgage to pay etc and what kind of deal the club can afford.

I don't know what Maddy's problems were, but if she was struggling with that kind of decision it won't have helped.
 
golden_blunder said:
I don’t know how anyone wouldn’t be stressed having to do a full time job, stressful enough in its own right without having strict regime of training and playing. For 6k a year.
clubs need to review how they operate women’s teams
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There is a revolution coming in the Women's game, hopefully the club's take this huge opportunity for major change:
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/wom...to-club-owned-structure.480350/#post-31378782

Obviously there is huge money in Men's football with even lower division players earning a good living so you would think some of that could trickle down the Women's football pyramid, but at the same time the Women's game needs to be financially sustainable in itself so it's not easy to find the balance
 
Had my heart stopped for a second as it read like Micheal Carrick. Still tragic to read the details.
 
Rood said:
There is a revolution coming in the Women's game, hopefully the club's take this huge opportunity for major change:
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/wom...to-club-owned-structure.480350/#post-31378782

Obviously there is huge money in Men's football with even lower division players earning a good living so you would think some of that could trickle down the Women's football pyramid, but at the same time the Women's game needs to be financially sustainable in itself so it's not easy to find the balance
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I agree that the women's game needs to be more sustainable in its own right, and perhaps NewCo will work towards that. Teams are currently affiliated to the men's teams and rely on them/the club overall for their funding.

I'd like to see the women's team able to negotiate their own shirt sponsorships, for example.

In another dreamland scenario the grossly overpaid men could easily sponsor one member of the women's team each - even £10k/year would make a huge difference and not dent their pockets. Call it charity and it's even tax deductible!

Edit: Apologies for taking this thread off track.
 
Demon Barber said:
I agree that the women's game needs to be more sustainable in its own right, and perhaps NewCo will work towards that. Teams are currently affiliated to the men's teams and rely on them/the club overall for their funding.

I'd like to see the women's team able to negotiate their own shirt sponsorships, for example.

In another dreamland scenario the grossly overpaid men could easily sponsor one member of the women's team each - even £10k/year would make a huge difference and not dent their pockets. Call it charity and it's even tax deductible!

Edit: Apologies for taking this thread off track.
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Yes this kind of detail is better suited to the other thread, but I suppose if one positive can come out from this sad story it will be teams like Sheffield United looking at how things are structured between different teams and how it can be improved especially since she was not just a player but also worked for the club on the marketing side.
 
Yeah, that’s sad. Manager sounds like a piece of work but yeah, I’d usually say it’s unfair of the family to apportion (a lot of) the blame onto him, especially as he was only there for 6 or so months before it happened, but the fact that his agency cut ties with him says differently.

Anyway, may her soul RiP.
 
I must admit I was surprised that he went through the club ordered inquiry and still had a job. I know there are always multiple sides to these stories.

I'm sure that's true of whatever happened to Maddie Cusack as well. I hope that any lessons that can be learned by football clubs in supporting their players are actually learned.

RIP Maddie
 
Fr. Todd Unctious said:
https://news.sky.com/story/jonathan...ife-sacked-by-sheffield-united-women-13062357


Sheff United Women's manager sacked in as a result of new information that has come to light. What an out and out scumbag and he'd only been there since February 2023
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Just on this, apparently the “new information that has come to light” isn’t anything to do with Maddy, but rather a secret, 3 year long relationship he had with a youth player when he was manager of Leicester City Women. To call him an out and out scumbag would be far too generous.

 
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5805721/2024/11/13/sheffield-united-jonathan-morgan-maddy-cusack/

Extraordinary new details can be revealed today to show Sheffield United were warned by one of Maddy Cusack’s team-mates in the club’s women’s side about its manager Jonathan Morgan’s alleged “bully-like behaviours” just a few months before she took her own life.

Evidence seen by The Athletic reveals that a player lodged a formal complaint about her own experiences which included a warning that “his (Morgan’s) clear disregard for player welfare could be dangerous to the mental health of other (women’s team) players”.

Her complaint was lodged towards the end of the 2022-23 season and, after Cusack took her own life on September 20, 2023, United offered the player a financial settlement but included a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) preventing her from speaking to the media or publicly revealing details of the matters she had raised, including Morgan’s alleged behaviour.
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Shocking and disgusting that SU were more concerned with their own reputation than the welfare and mental health of their employees. Reprehensible act to try and pay hush money to a whistle blower, especially in the context of their failures causing a vulnerable young woman to take her own life.

We can only hope that some good come out of this tragic situation and players in the women’s game are given the care and support they need moving forward. RIP Maddy.
 
Unfortunately it's not a surprise seeing this. The fact that the club shrugged off her complaint with offers of a cash settlement if she signed a NDA should have been enough to raise every red flag with their inquiry. Whatever the manager's role in this, the failure of the club to help her when she reached out to them in distress was a dereliction of duty.
 
I didn't see this news yesterday. Totally and utterly shocking, deplorable and tragic. The fact that a club can attempt to cover it all up needs serious investigation.

RIP Maddy
 
Plant0x84 said:
Shocking and disgusting that SU were more concerned with their own reputation than the welfare and mental health of their employees. Reprehensible act to try and pay hush money to a whistle blower, especially in the context of their failures causing a vulnerable young woman to take her own life.

We can only hope that some good come out of this tragic situation and players in the women’s game are given the care and support they need moving forward. RIP Maddy.
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Tbh id be more shocked if it were the other way around. This is capitalism.
 
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