Footballing World Shocked and Saddened by Loss of Matt Beard

The Liverpool Offside community is deeply saddened to report the sudden passing of 47-year-old Matt Beard, who was formerly the manager of Liverpool FC Women and was a giant in the women’s game. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends, as well as to all who worked with him over his long career in football.

His wife, Deb, posted an announcement on social media on Saturday informing the wider footballing world of her family’s personal tragedy: “It is with great sadness that our beautiful Matthew Beard has passed away tonight [Saturday] at 7.28pm. He is a loving husband, father, son, brother and uncle. He was the most amazing, caring man who was loved by anyone who had the pleasure to meet him.

“All of our family kindly ask for time to grieve in peace at his loss. We will love you forever, you absolute legend.”

Beard managed at Liverpool twice over his illustrious career, winning two consecutive WSL titles with the Reds in 2013 and 2014 and returning more recently to lead the side to promotion back into the top division after a spell outside the WSL. The club statement recognized both his influence on the game and the personal qualities that makes this so great a loss:

“Liverpool Football Club is deeply shocked and saddened by the sudden passing of former LFC Women manager Matt Beard. The thoughts of everyone at the club are with Matt’s family and friends at this devastating time.

“Matt was not only an extremely committed and successful manager, he was also a person of real integrity and warmth, who will always be remembered with genuine fondness by everyone he worked with at the club.”

The BBC’s Emma Saunders, who has in the past been platformed on local and fan media on Merseyside and has covered LFC Women for a long time, penned a touching and personal tribute to a manager who she had worked closely with as a journalist covering the Reds:

“’Beardy’, as he was known to those in the game, was an ever-present in the WSL and a character that lit up the room. He was funny, loud and straight to the point.

“He was often likened to ‘a giant teddy bear’ — a loving man from London who gave out hugs to anyone and everyone in the stands — a contrast to the bellowing manager who shouted instructions to his players from the dugout.

“Liverpool fans were particularly fond of him as he led the club to back-to-back WSL trophies and returned for a second spell, guiding them back to the top-flight with a Women’s Championship title.

“In the successes, he celebrated hard and happily, enjoying a pint (or two) with staff and supporters in the pub next to Prenton Park, where Liverpool Women used to play their home matches.

“He invited those of us in the media to join him and discussed further his tactics or what luck was on his side, often teasing us on whether we had been too harsh in the match reports or in our questioning of him in the news conferences.

“Away from the pitch, he was a family man and always spoke about his children, sometimes joking about how he was struggling to help his son with his maths homework.

“He told me he wanted to start a podcast where he could discuss ‘the real issues’ in women’s football and what it was really like to be a football coach. He found a cheap deal on some recording equipment online and practised.

“There were ups and downs in his football career but he always cared deeply for his players and the supporters. He will be remembered fondly in the game and the positive impact he had on the people he worked with will remain for a long time.”

His legacy and his influence — as well as who he was as a person — is reflected in the wide-ranging and deeply-felt tributes that have emerged over the course of Saturday, and which will continue to emerge. Matt Beard was, per the FA’s own tribute, a “key figure” in women’s football, who was “instrumental” in the growth of the English game.

Such an impact is perhaps also reflected in the words of English international Mel Lawley, who followed Beard to the third tier of women’s football in England when her former manager took a post at Burnley earlier this year. The following words from Lawley are not tributes in the wake of his loss, but rather his player giving her manager his roses in life, as she explained why someone of her experience would move to a third tier side:

“I think, playing however many years with Beardie, I know how he likes to play. I know him as a person, he’s an amazing man. He wants you to be a better person before you step out on the pitch. Working with Beardie, you want to fight for him, play as well as you can for him. So obviously when he messaged, and I knew the caliber of players that were coming in with him. It was a no-brainer for me.”

“When you come into Burnley, you see the aspirations that this club has got. It’s an amazing set up to be here for me and Beardie, he wants the best for Burnley. I think we’re coming together and hopefully pushing this club to where it should be. Our main goal at the moment, is getting promotion, but we’re taking it game by game.”

This is, I feel, the impression I had of Beard while he was LFC Women, and both his initial move to Burnley and his personal recruitment of the type of player and personality likely to foster long-term advancement — leaving aside their willingness to join him, which speaks for itself — tells us much about his willingness to graft in order to advance the game more broadly and the sides he managed specifically. Matt Beard certainly gave me my happiest memories as a supporter, and I am grateful for the time he spent at the club.

Beard began his career at the Millwall Lionesses, and also coached Chelsea, West Ham, Bristol City (as an interim manager), Burnley, and the National Women’s Soccer League side Boston Breakers. He resigned from his post at Burnley after two months in charge of the club.

What the glowing tributes to Beard show us is something we all largely gathered from the outside: Beard always gave the impression of being an honest and hard-working man who cared about both his own players and the state of the game generally. He managed in circumstances that were at times the absolute peak of the women’s game, but also spent a lot of time supporting teams toward success in less-than-ideal circumstances — often managing a side arguably neglected by the club more broadly.

Women’s football would be in a worse place without his efforts, and his impact will be felt and honored for a long time. What he managed to accomplish in such a cruelly short life is something to be proud of, and while his family and wider loved ones cope with the immediate and ever-present grief of his loss it is our hope that so many tributes speaking to the man he was serve as a balm amidst a sense of loss. It is rare, I think, to leave such a positive impact on so many.