Women's Aid has appealed to football clubs to train their players in controlling behaviours amid the Kyle Walker cheating saga.
The charity, which works to end domestic abuse against women and children, said football clubs could become 'complicit' in players launching PR campaigns to avoid accountability.
It comes as the Manchester City defender Walker, 33, was branded a 'disgrace' by fans after learning he'd fathered a second 'love child' with the influencer Lauryn Goodman, 33, while his wife and childhood sweetheart Annie Kilner, 30, is heavily pregnant.
Women's Aid has now waded in on the saga to issue a statement, a spokeswoman saying: 'At Women's Aid we know from our long-term work with football, that while controlling and manipulative behaviour can happen in relationships no matter what your job, that very successful footballers will have access to high-level PR and legal support through their financial position that can enable them to control the narrative of what has happened.