Phil Neville has questioned the “etiquette” of Women’s World Cup semi-final opponents the United States after their staff were spotted at England’s team hotel in Lyon.
The England boss, 42, said it is “not something England would do” but that the incident is “not a concern”.
It is understood at least one employee from the US camp was seen at the hotel while England were training.
England face the defending champions in Lyon on Tuesday at 20:00 BST.
Both Neville and USA head coach Jill Ellis have played down suggestions that the visit was a spying mission.
Ellis indicated that the USA were looking at the hotel as a potential base for Sunday’s final which, like Tuesday’s semi-final, will be played at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais.
Neville said: “It’s not an unfair advantage; it’ll have no bearing on the game. I actually found it quite funny. I just thought: ‘What are they doing?’ It’s not etiquette really, is it?
“The only thing I would say is it’s not something that I would want my team ops person doing.
“We’re happy with our hotel. So I hope they enjoyed the hotel.”
Neville went on to say he expected Ellis would “probably not have been happy with the arrangement”.
England-born Ellis, 52, who has coached the US since 2014, suggested that the visit was intended to check out the hotel. She added that she assumed “everybody was doing that” and that her
administrator, who she believes was one of the people to have attended England’s hotel, was simply “planning ahead”.
“The only two people that think of planning ahead on my team is my administrator, because she has to book all the flights and everything and do all that stuff, and her boss, and everybody else, we
don’t worry about that,” Ellis said.
“I think that’s important, to do your job. So in terms of arrogance, I think that’s got nothing to do with us. That’s planning and preparation for our staff, so I think that’s pretty normal.”
England reached the semi-finals with a 3-0 win over Norway, while the USA defeated hosts France 2-1 to reach the last four – a feat they have achieved in all eight of their World Cup campaigns.
