Great news for Peter Shilton, David Beckham and Kyle Walker. All are up for this year’s Pulitzer Prize, by virtue of having played football for England a few times.
That was the logic behind Eni Aluko’s latest two-footer on Ian Wright: that if you have won 105 caps for the Lionesses, you should qualify automatically for the big gigs in journalism and broadcasting. Wright, she said, was not an “ally”, because he refused to give up punditry jobs to make way for her.
In an unspeakable affront to her sensibilities, Aluko was forced to watch England win the Euro 2025 final from the stands, all because the best TV jobs had not been “gate-kept” for women.
Wright may be a man who has supported the women’s game for more than 30 years, long before it was lucrative or fashionable to do so, but he is still a man – Aluko appears to think that alone should have seen him barred from the stadium.
Here’s the reason Aluko’s comments are so damaging. For no reason other than ego, they seek to stifle the growth of a sport that is meant to be flourishing. Those who genuinely want to see women’s football thrive should be encouraging people of all genders, ages and persuasions to engage with it. ITV are lucky to have Wright, one of the most popular pundits in the country, to help them do that.
But whatever the intention, what Aluko said is disparaging to women too. It implies female pundits and presenters have been selected because of their anatomy rather than their ability. Pundits like Alex Scott already have to deal with constant insinuations that they have been appointed only as a token woman.
Another superb broadcaster, Laura Woods, replied deftly on social media: “Caps don’t win automatic work and they don’t make a brilliant pundit… The way you communicate, articulate yourself, do your research, inform your audience, how likeable you are and the chemistry you have with your panel are what makes a brilliant pundit.
“‘The women’s game should be by women for women’, is one of the most damaging phrases I’ve heard.”
As Aluko doubled down on Talksport, panellist Simon Jordan put it pretty well too: “The sheer weight of entitlement you seem to believe you have would sink the weight of the Titanic”.
That one will have stung. Aluko is not keen on entitlement – in fact she once insisted that those whose incomes were decimated by the pandemic were indulging in a “do-nothing” mentality by relying on the Government’s furlough scheme. The next day, she apologised
These are infinitely weird hills to die on and just prove Woods’s point – that pundits will only get work if they are popular.
Aluko’s sad descent into a pantomime villain has obscured her voice on more valuable subjects. She has spoken bravely about the difficulties faced by black women in sports media and has previously said she did not believe men’s football was a “safe space” for women. Many women will disagree but that should not discount her telling of her own experiences.
Last year, Aluko also suffered appalling online abuse at the hands of Joey Barton, for which he was prosecuted.
Men like Barton and Mark Sampson, the former England coach whom she accused of racism and harassment, are the real enemies of women’s football. Not Wright.
Aluko insists she has “nothing against Ian” but suggested his failure to accept her apology 10 months ago, the last time she criticised him for working in the women’s game, had “greenlit further abuse”.
Your next read
You have to wonder how she might speak about people she does have something against. Instead it comes across as another act of needless self-sabotage.
In the same way that sports journalists do not necessarily make very good footballers (something to which I can attest), elite players do not always translate their abilities into the studio. On the contrary, Match of the Day’s post-Lineker success has been built on the humour, knowledge and insights of Mark Chapman, Kelly Cates and Gabby Logan – none of whom played the game professionally.
Wright goes even further by campaigning for girls to be given equal access to football in PE. One of the great joys of the past few years has been the sight of men and boys with female players’ names on the back of their shirts. Excluding Wright would be a message that they are not welcome, when the vast majority of people in the women’s game say that they are. That is why Aluko’s one-woman crusade is going to fail.
from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/VMorq2f
Post a Comment