England women's national team manager Phil Neville will avoid punishment from the Football Association after apologising for the content of some of his past tweets that led him to delete his Twitter account hours after his hiring.
FA chief executive Martin Glenn said the historical comments from Neville did not "meet the threshold for issuing a charge."
Neville, 41, was appointed as the permanent successor to Mark Sampson -- who was sacked last September over "inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour" relating to his time in charge at Bristol Academy -- despite limited management experience and the emergence of some sexist tweets from 2012.
"Following comments made a number of years ago I would like to clarify that they were not and are not a true and genuine reflection of either my character or beliefs, and would like to apologise," he said in a statement released by the FA.
"I am fully aware of my responsibilities as the England Women's Head Coach and am immensely proud and honoured to have been given the role. I am now looking forward to the future and will work tirelessly to try and help bring success to the team."
After reports emerged that Neville was in line for the job, tweets he wrote in 2012 resurfaced in the British media, raising further eyebrows about his hiring.
In one, Neville wrote six years ago: "Morning men couple of hours cricket be4 work sets me up nicely for the day!" When asked what about the women, he posted: "When I said morning men I thought the women would of been busy preparing breakfast/getting kids ready/making beds-sorry morning women!"
An apology from Neville was drowned out by a chorus of disapproval of the decision to appoint him, given his complete lack of experience in the women's game, and by many who considered his Twitter comments distasteful.
Glenn was responding to Kick It Out, the anti-discrimination campaign group, whose CEO Roisin Wood had said in a statement: "The appointment of Phil Neville as Head Coach of the England Women's Senior Team ultimately raises more questions than answers for The Football Association.
"Kick It Out have serious concerns over a recruitment process that has resulted in the appointment of someone with no record of management or experience in women's football, and are making representations to The FA to ensure the governing body is transparent and accountable for their decision.
"Following on from the announcement, Kick It Out was also made aware of alleged historical social media posts from Neville, which appear to show him making misogynistic and sexist comments. These have since been passed on to The FA. In light of recent action taken in response to historical social media comments made by current football participants, the question must now be asked -- will The FA be charging Neville for posting discriminatory comments on social media?
"Kick It Out has supported the recent steps The FA has undertaken to ensure that going forward, the governing body's equality and diversity practices will be up to standard and will help football reflect the multicultural society in which we live. However, we believe that if The FA wants to recover the confidence of the public, it must ensure that the concerns surrounding Phil Neville's appointment are comprehensively addressed."
In a letter to Wood, Glenn said the FA only learned of some of Neville's tweets on Tuesday.
Glenn added: "I can also confirm that the assessment of the FA's integrity/regulatory team is that those comments would not meet the threshold for issuing a charge against any participants but as part of the induction process, Phil will be educated on all aspects of the FA's regulatory functions and his responsibilities thereunder.
"He will also be warned that any future comments that are deemed to cross the charging threshold will be treated with the utmost seriousness and may lead to disciplinary action."
The appointment will be Neville's first full-time head coaching job, and he has never worked in the women's game before. However, he has many fans at the Football Association and does hold a UEFA Pro Licence.
Capped 59 times by England in his playing days, Neville has held assistant coaching positions at his former club United and Spanish side Valencia, as well as doing some work with England's U21 side.
Neville was selected by the FA when a host of highly-qualified candidates withdrew from contention. Glenn said that from 145 candidates, it cut the contenders down to a list of four, two of whom were were female and all of whom decided against pursuing their interest in the job. The FA then turned to Neville.
Neville's wife Julie defended her husband in an Instagram post, describing him as "the most honest, kind, generous, gentle and hard-working man I have ever met."
Sports minister Tracey Crouch said the FA needed to show transparency, welcomed Neville's apology and said: "Sexism of any kind must not be tolerated."
The Women's Sport Trust charity said the appointment of Neville "undermines the coaching pathway and will be a blow to hundreds of football coaches, both male and female."
"Our national women's team deserve the very best coach available to fulfil their enormous potential and inspire millions of men and women," it said. "To see a high profile, former professional footballer virtually parachuted in to such a significant role in football without the level of experience required, undermines the coaching pathway and will be a blow to hundreds of football coaches, both male and female, currently working towards their badges at all levels."
It added that the appointment shows the limited numbers of female coaches "at the highest level" and, addressing Neville's social media output, the WST added: "We are also saddened by Phil Neville's historical tweets and the lack of comment about this from the FA. In the age of MeToo and TimesUp, all individuals and organisations must be more aware of past sexist behaviour and respond to it appropriately."
Information from Press Association was used in this report.