Kirk was initially suspended by Leicester on 8 March, 2024 – the eve of the club’s FA Cup quarter-final against Liverpool – to “assist with an internal process” after a complaint was lodged from someone outside the club.
He missed three games before being sacked after the conclusion of an investigation.
Personal relationships between players and coaches in women’s football have been criticised for potentially creating a power imbalance in a squad.
They are not illegal as long as no minors are involved, albeit they can breach codes of conduct.
Each WSL club has their own code of conduct and every club must have a safeguarding officer in place.
“I knew there was a code of conduct, I signed it like everyone else,” Kirk said. “As first-team manager you are there to lead by example and that is why I have never said I shouldn’t have been sacked.
“I got pulled into a meeting on the Friday, 30 minutes before training and was questioned about it.
“Sometimes I think I should have denied it and taken it to the grave, but I don’t think that would have sat well with me. I admitted it and that was it.”
Kirk was separated from his ex-wife when the relationship began, which was when the player suffered an injury. The pair travelled to Italy together in the February international break and the club were made aware shortly after.
Kirk accepts a line had been crossed and said if he had his time again things would have been done differently.
“At the time of the investigation, we had already called it off,” Kirk recalled. “We said ‘we have taken this too far, this is too close for comfort, we need to put this on the back-burner until the end of the season and then one of us leave the club. If we still feel this way we can do something about it’.”
Kirk was on a permanent contract when he was sacked but did not receive any compensation because the club found him to have committed gross misconduct.
He has only been to two Leicester games since his exit and regrets the manner of his departure.
“I never saw the staff, never saw the players,” Kirk added. I wanted the chance to apologise to everybody face-to-face. I think they would have felt very let down.”
