The BBC has apologised for reporting the death of Matt Beard, a former female Liverpool manager. The station fired in the headline and body of the story published on the BBC Sport website on Monday, September 29, with specific details about the methods used to take his own life, based on the coroner’s hearing.
This article was sent as a push notification to users of the site with 8.5 million active accounts each week. In a statement, the BBC said: “It was not appropriate to include specific details of Matt Beard’s tragic death in recent headlines, and we will push a report of the coroner’s court hearing notice.
The broadcaster’s own editorial policy states that “suspicion should be avoided in headlines unless editorially justified.”
This comes after Coroner John Griffith shared details of Heard’s death at the age of 47 at the Coroner’s Court hearing on Monday. He explained that paramedics were called to Deeside Home in Beard, Flintshire before being rushed to the hospital, but died tragically at 9:15pm on Saturday, September 20th.
Tributes have been poured from the entire football world for Heard, who successfully made management spells with Liverpool, West Ham and Chelsea. A minute of silence was observed before all WSL and WSL2 matched on Sunday, September 21, but the match against Liverpool’s Aston Villa was postponed.
Among the heartfelt compliments were a series of posts from his devastated son Harry. He shared photos of himself and his father on social media, along with another image in which he held his father’s hand, “Love Dad, 78-25. I’ll always miss you,” and said, “Suicide is never the answer, it reaches 111, or 999.
Harry also posted a video showing Beard jumping into the pool. “I never failed to make me laugh. Even if I had a bad day, he always said, ‘I’m sure I can make you smile.’
Liverpool FC also issued a statement after Beard’s death. “Everyone at the club is thought of with Matt’s family and friends at this devastating timing. Matt was not only a very dedicated and successful manager, but also a man of true integrity and warmth in which everyone who worked at the club remembered pure love.”
Meanwhile, Manchester United boss Mark Skinner welcomed the Beard as an “icon”, while English legend Farrah Williams described him as “a kind of, and had the purest soul.”
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