How United goalkeeper won her battle over maternity pay
Siobhan Chamberlain tells Molly McElwee how her FA player contract did not guarantee maternity leave
When Siobhan Chamberlain discovered she was pregnant last June, her first thought – after informing her husband – was how she was going to break the news to her club, Manchester United, and manager, Casey Stoney.
Chamberlain’s uncertainty was understandable. As she reveals to
The Sunday Telegraph, there was no guarantee of maternity leave in her Football Association standard player contract – the one used by all players in the Women’s Super League and Championship.
Holding six-week-old baby Emilia in her arms, Chamberlain laughs when recalling the conversation with Stoney, but admits it did include some tears. “It was obviously as much of a surprise to Casey as it was to me,” she says. “I got quite emotional – but I’ll blame it on the hormones.
“She was great – she’s a mother herself. She supported me and reassured me that the club would, too. I think ink that was one of the biggest things, that there’s no maternity in women’s football contracts.”
Chamberlain is matter-offact, even though she is dropping a significant bombshell. The FA relaunched the Women’s Super League in 2018 to make players in the top tier full-time professionals, a huge step ep for the women’s s game in this country. But the United ted goalkeeper’s revelation on shows that, despite spite the progress, players are only legally entitled to statutory maternity pay and leave. That is six weeks at 90 per cent pay and £148.68 a week for 33 weeks thereafter.
Any bespoke conditions players secure are instead at the discretion of their clubs. Chamberlain says she was only given that luxury because United “were great” and worked with her to create a policy, the terms of which remain confidential but she says included full pay and flexibility on her return to training.
Alongside training,
Chamberlain also explored other interests with United during pregnancy – in their media team and as a photographer – but she recognises that all of that was thanks to their supportive approach.
“It’s great that United supported me, but it’s not just about me,” she says. “I think if I was at another club, I wouldn’t have been looked after how I have been at United. Potentially, if there’s no maternity in the contract, then [it could be] a, ‘You’re no use to us – see you later’, type thing. “PR-wise, it would be horrific for any club that would do that, because there should be maternity. It needs to be addressed, it’s about making sure other players that potentially aren’t at clubs that are as supportive still get looked after, and can have a child without losing their football contract or feeling that they don’t belong any more, which is very possible.” When presented with The Telegraph’s findings, the FA confirmed that the standard league contracts did not include any provisions expressly dealing with pregnancy, but said that it knew clubs were looking at maternity policies on an individual basis.
The Professional Footballers’ Association, which liaised with the FA on the current contracts, said its women’s football department, which was launched this month, aimed to tackle the issue by creating a committee with the FA and players – similar to one that exists for male players. “One of the main priorities for 2020 is to work with the FA to establish a Professional Football Negotiating Consultative Committee in the women’s game,” Marie-Christine Bouchier, PFA director of women’s football, says. “Enhanced maternity rights would be a key priority amongst other fundamental improvements that would be addressed by this committee.” Considering the WSL is almost two seasons into operating as a full-time outfit, it seems an overdue development. Even players in Spain’s top women’s division, a part-time league, obtained full pay during maternity leave last month (after strike action). Chamberlain, 36, is clued up on the issue, adding that male professionals do not have a paternity policy either, quoting enviable childcare packages the US Women’s National Basketball League recently secured, and describing conversations she hoped to continue having with the PFA on the WSL situation.
All the while we are sitting in Hotel Football, overlooking Old Trafford, Chamberlain breastfeeds her newborn, proudly holding up the baby’s apparently “massive” hands. “She’s definitely a future goalkeeper,” she says.
A working mother in football is now a more palatable idea than it once was. While former England player Katie Chapman claimed she was punished for having children, in being dropped from the national squad in 2011, Chamberlain has had a hugely positive experience with her club. Stoney, her own coach, is a mother of twins, and Chelsea manager Emma Hayes regularly brings her infant son on to the pitch at Kingsmeadow post-match.
But a 2017 survey by Fifpro, the world players’ union, found that only one per cent of players in the WSL were mothers, which is unsurprising considering the lack of explicit support outlined in contracts.
Thanks to the confidence United gave Chamberlain, she says she feels no pressure to return to the pitch too soon, though she hopes she will be back on the field by next season – whenever that starts amid coronavirus postponements.
Her relaxed approach does not mean it has been an easy adjustment. Chamberlain trained up until midway through her pregnancy, but thereafter was mostly confined to the gym and a stationary bike until she gave birth in January. The very different challenges professional sportswomen face when pregnant – as compared to the average worker – made her more acutely aware of the importance of maternity policies.
“Most people’s lives don’t change until you have the baby, whereas for me the second I was pregnant, my life changed completely,” Chamberlain says, while also acknowledging that her No1 spot obviously had to be filled, by England goalkeeper Mary Earps. “Things aren’t going to go back to exactly how they were before. Football doesn’t work like that.”
Advocacy group Pregnant Then Screwed calls the situation with contracts in the WSL “pitiful”, while Maternity Action, the UK’s leading charity on such issues, says it is “worrying” and that change is overdue.
Chamberlain says in her postplaying career she would like to “stay in football within decision-making, to be a link between players and club”, but that first she fully intends to return to the pitch for United.
“Having a baby doesn’t mean you lose who you are or who you were,” she says. “You’re still that same person and can go out there and achieve whatever you want, alongside being a great mum.”
Only with the right support guaranteed can Chamberlain’s message ring true, though.