British former footballer turned former manager Joey Barton has escalated his battles regarding female commentators in sport, after he was slammed by broadcaster ITV for making “vindictive” remarks about two of their pundits.
Barton, used to causing controversy with his outspoken attitude, launched this latest debacle with a social media post Friday regarding the comments made by pundits Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward on a televised match the night before.
Of Aluko, he wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “How is she even talking about men’s football. She can’t even kick a ball properly. Your coverage of the game EFC last night, took it to a new low. Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward, the Fred and Rose West of football commentary.”
Fred and Rose West were a married couple convicted of a dozen murders over a 20-year period, with both names remaining on the list of the UK’s most notorious criminals. Fred West hanged himself in prison in 1995, while Rose West remains behind bars.
ITV responded with a statement Friday afternoon that read: “For Joey Barton, an ex-professional player with a significant social media presence, to target two of our pundits, Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward, with such vindictive remarks based on gender and to invoke the names of serial killers in doing so is clearly contemptible and shameful on his part. Football is for everyone.”
This prompted a fresh outburst from Barton, who replied: “Shut up you f****** idiots. Keep them off the tele. They’re ruining the game for everyone of us. It’s what happens when you force under qualified, under prepared, tokenistic people onto us.”
Such views on women’s participation as pundits in the men’s game are nothing new from Barton. A month ago, he wrote on X: “Women shouldn’t be talking with any kind of authority in the men’s game. Come on. Let’s be serious. It’s a completely different game. If you don’t accept that. We will always see things differently. The women’s game is thriving. Fantastic to see. I cannot take a thing they say serious in the men’s arena.
And he added: “Stand by everything I’ve said on women commenting and co-comms on the men’s football. Like me talking about knitting or netball. Way out of my comfort zone. Some of the men are bad enough! We have gone too far. You cannot watch a game now without hearing the nonsense. Any man who says otherwise is an absolute fart parcel.”
