Emma Hayes says continuing her work as Chelsea Women’s manager would be important to her father after he passed away this week.
Her dad Sid was majorly supportive of Hayes, who has become one of most decorated coaches in the history of English football.
Hayes, who announced the passing of her father, 82, on social media on Monday, addressed her loss on the eve of the Women’s Super League season starting.
”Of course, it has been a very difficult time for me. A very challenging summer and a little bit longer than that,” she explained at Cobham.
“I will say this, I say it on behalf of all my family, if I didn’t come to work today then I could hear my dad, I would hear him in me and he would be saying get your backside to work.
“You’ve got a game to prepare for and a title to defend. It is important we get on with life and I will honour that. I was very, very happy to see the players and come back to start.”
Chelsea begin their title defence against Tottenham at Stamford Bridge on Sunday but have faced criticism from their own Women’s Supporters Group for raising ticket prices.
Hayes was keen to explain Chelsea’s prices were too low in recent years and they have been losing money by staging matches at the 40,000-seater stadium.
“Ticket prices across the board have had to rise. Our average price has raised from around seven pounds. I respect it is a jump for fans but we have got world class players on show, we have to value that.”
She added: “No, we don’t need to make ticketing ridiculous but I think paying £12 to watch an unbelievable team at Stamford Bridge is affordable.
“If they have more money and want to spend more on tickets then so be it, just as you would for a nicer theatre ticket or a cusioned cinema ticket.
“We have to respect that nothing is really just given, if we are asking for quality of access, which I am then commercial and marketing have a lot of work to do, not just at Chelseaa.
“I hope commercially and marketing-wise we stay in big stadiums so we all have to accept it costs money if we want to be there, it is not a charity, it is a business.
“I want to be there, the players want to be there and fans want us to be there so we need to keep pushing to make that happen and there won’t be cancellations because of weather.”
