The former Liverpool manager Matt Beard has died at the age of 47, the Women\u2019s Super League club have announced. A Liverpool statement expressed the club\u2019s deep shock and sadness at the news.<\/p>\n
Beard guided the club to two WSL titles in consecutive seasons in 2013 and 2014, in his first of two spells in charge of the club. In the second spell, he led them to promotion back to the top flight. He is the most successful manager in Liverpool\u2019s women\u2019s team\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
Beard\u2019s wife, Deb, wrote on social media: \u201cIt 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of our family kindly ask for time to grieve in peace at his loss. We will love you forever, you absolute legend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matt Beard and his players celebrate Liverpool\u2019s promotion to the WSL after the Championship match against Bristol City at Ashton Gate in April 2022. Photograph: Liverpool FC\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Liverpool said: \u201cLiverpool 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\u2019s family and friends at this devastating time.<\/p>\n
\u201cMatt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement on X, the WSL said: \u201cEveryone at WSL Football extends its deepest sympathies to the family, friends and loved ones of Matt Beard following news of his passing. Matt played an instrumental role in the growth of women\u2019s football and will be missed by everyone associated with the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beard, who was in charge of Liverpool last season and was most recently the manager at Burnley, was also a Cup finalist while in charge of West Ham, and had spells managing Bristol City, Chelsea and Boston Breakers.<\/p>\n
Beard was named as the WSL\u2019s manager of the year in 2013 and 2014. He was appointed as the Burnley manager in June 2025 but resigned in August.<\/p>\n
The Professional Footballers\u2019 Association said: \u201cWe are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Matt Beard. Matt was a hugely respected and loved figure across the game, and we extend our condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former Liverpool manager Matt Beard has died at the age of 47, the Women\u2019s Super League club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,179,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-439643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-liverpool","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115239262919105453","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}