Sheffield United have been branded “disrespectful” after it emerged they opted against retiring Maddy Cusack’s shirt number but kept the decision away from her family.

Nobody from Bramall Lane has informed Cusack’s relatives about how the club chose to reject a 1,200-strong fan petition asking them to “keep her memory alive” by retiring the No 8 jersey.

Instead, the family found out by chance that the decision had been logged in the minutes of the club’s Fan Advisory Board (FAB) meeting on November 7.

United’s stance has been criticised by friends of Cusack, as well as fans and former team-mates, some of whom have questioned whether it might be linked to her parents, David and Deborah, having lodged an official complaint about her last seven months at the club — coinciding with Jonathan Morgan’s appointment as manager.

That complaint is now the subject of a Football Association investigation. More than 40 witnesses have been interviewed as part of that process and a full report is being sent to the coroner, who will oversee a two-day inquest in April.

“I can’t help thinking that should the longest-serving player lose their life at any other club — while still playing there — the shirt would be retired immediately,” says Nina Wilson, one of Cusack’s former team-mates.

“It’s an opportunity missed for the club to show some respect to the family. I am beyond gutted for them and I am gutted for Maddy. She deserves to be remembered there more than anyone I know. There is no explanation I can see for the club’s actions, other than they want to forget this happened.”

Cusack was affectionately known as Miss Sheffield United, or MC8, because of her role as the vice-captain and longest-serving player on the women’s team, as well as working in the club’s marketing department.

The 27-year-old took her own life in September 2023 and a fan petition, dedicated to “a legend of the Lane”, asked her employers to emulate other clubs where players had died and retire her shirt number. Those examples include Manchester City’s Marc-Vivien Foe (No 23), Swansea City’s Besian Idrizaj (No 40), AFC Fylde’s Zoe Tynan (No 19) and Italian club Livorno’s Piermario Morosini (No 25).

Instead, Stephen Bettis, United’s chief executive, is quoted in the FAB minutes saying the club “feel that keeping the number in existence gives a reminder of who has worn it previously and keeps Maddy’s memory alive”.

Bettis then states that retiring Cusack’s shirt number “would go against what has been done previously within the club following the passing of players”. He also goes on to say it will be the same for George Baldock, a popular ex-United player who moved to Greek club Panathinaikos last year and was found dead in October, aged 31, at his home in Athens.

What is not clear is whether anyone at the relevant FAB meeting, or within the club’s decision-making process, made the point that the difference between Cusack and others was that she was still a United player at the time of her death.

“I never thought this should have needed a petition in the first place,” says Wilson, who announced in November she had decided to quit playing because she was so disillusioned by how United — and women’s football as a whole — had responded to Cusack’s death.

“Maddy has the most appearances for Sheffield United women. No one did more for the club than her; she lived and breathed it for many years. She never did anything wrong. She gave everything to the place, on and off the pitch.”

When contacted by , United declined to answer any questions about their reasons or provide comment from their new American owners, Steven Rosen and Helmy Eltoukhy of COH Sports, whose £100million takeover went through last month with a pledge that “our fans will be at the heart of what COH stands for”.

A club spokesman said: “The club has nothing further to add on this matter at this time.”

Rachel Iball, the Sheffield-based fan who started the petition, said many of her fellow supporters would be “baffled and upset” by the club’s position.

“I just think, ‘How can you be so disrespectful?’. I’m amazed the club could come to this decision when it (retiring Cusack’s number) is what the fans want,” Iball says.

“It seems to me the club don’t care about the players, they don’t care about the fans and they don’t care about Maddy’s family — that’s the main thing. The club want to brush it all away and move on, even though Maddy was an amazing player for them.”

The petition, which was supported by the family-run Maddy Cusack Charity Foundation, was delivered to Bettis and other club executives, asking them to “have the No 8 retired so Maddy can never be forgotten, and to give her the respect she deserves”.

In email exchanges, United’s head of women’s football, Aaron Little, had stated it was a delicate subject to discuss with fans, but that the club would “correspond with the Cusack family privately, as and when appropriate”. Instead, the family were kept in the dark until discovering how Bettis was quoted in the FAB minutes about why United had decided not to retire the shirt.

Nobody in the women’s team has worn the No 8 shirt in the 14 months since Cusack’s death and it does not appear that anyone raised the follow-up question about which player would want to inherit her number.

“If somebody else was given the No 8, I’m not sure they would want to wear it,” says Iball. “And how would the fans react, knowing that player has Maddy’s shirt on? They wouldn’t like it. So why put someone in that position?”.

Sources close to Cusack’s family, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the situation, say relatives are upset and disappointed by the decision, but not entirely surprised after what they see as a noticeable hardening of United’s position since they asked for an investigation into Morgan’s alleged behaviour.

United have not made any contributions to the charity foundation that was set up in her name and do not even follow its account on social media. Bettis has not contacted the family since December 2023, despite telling them he would regularly be in touch to support them and the foundation.

Morgan, 36, has strenuously denied playing any part in the player’s emotional anguish and, having been cleared of any wrongdoing in a club-commissioned inquiry, he says he is the victim of a “witch-hunt”. Cusack’s family, however, have rejected the findings of that inquiry, which was described by Dame Caroline Dinenage, chairing the government’s culture, media and sport committee, as a “seemingly quite flawed investigation”.

He has been the subject of other complaints relating to alleged “bully-like behaviours”, which he denies, and, as  reported in November, one of Cusack’s team-mates in Sheffield warned the club via email that “his clear disregard for player welfare could be dangerous to the mental health of other (women’s team) players”.

Morgan was also the subject of two unrelated complaints over his conduct while previously in charge of Leicester City’s women’s team but was not sanctioned on either occasion.

Writing to the family in December 2023, Bettis stated that none of the people interviewed for the club-commissioned inquiry had “heard or witnessed any bullying or inappropriate behaviour” from Morgan towards any player.

Bettis did, however, acknowledge that Morgan’s behaviour “divided opinion”. Some he interviewed had found him supportive and caring. Others described his style of management as “isolating some players, quite authoritative and intimidating”.

Morgan was sacked by United last February after it emerged he had a secret three-year relationship with a teenage Leicester player while manager there, when he was in his late twenties.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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