The fallout from England’s failure to reach the final of the women’s European Championship has begun with leaked revelations that the Football Association paid out £40,000 to a player who brought a complaint of bullying and harassment against it.
Eni Aluko is one of England women’s most recognisable players having been part of the Channel 4 coverage of the championships and the first female player to appear as a pundit on Match of the Day. However, the 30-year-old Chelsea striker has not played for the national team for more than a year due to what she refers to as a coaching regime that “belittles” players.
Her complaints resulted in an independent review by the FA and an inquiry conducted by the barrister Katharine Newton five months ago.
Neither investigation upheld Aluko’s complaints but she was offered £40,000 in addition to a new contract worth £20,000, even though the striker made it plain that she could not play for her country while Mark Sampson was the head coach of the women’s team.
The FA has vigorously denied that the settlement constituted “hush money”. The only element of confidentiality attached to it was that the figures involved would not be revealed.
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Aluko, who has 102 England caps, did not, according to her agent, leak details of the deal struck with the FA, which were published by the Daily Mail.
The reason for the payments, the FA says, was to ensure that the dispute did not escalate and cause unrest while the England team were competing at the finals, where they lost in the semi-finals to hosts and eventual winners Holland.