Female pundits in men's football

[Tommy]

I read about Joey Barton's comments and Emma Hayes' response. 

 

What is your view on female pundits in men's football?

[LFCMike]

 

[Whiskey]

Females in any walk of life shouldn't need to justify their existence. Anyone that is wanting women out of sport/a sector is everything that is wrong with the world and needs to take a hard look at themselves - that goes for other groups too, such as those put to the side for their ethnicity, religious/sexual beliefs. 

My only two pence, is that there's a lot of false reporting (not sure the best phrase to use) in order to bump up the womens game. For example you'll hear "what a screamer from her!" when it actual fact it was with as much venom as a paper bag floating in the wind, or shouts that "X female" is just as good as Mbappe! I think it actually harms the game. If it was just genuinely accepted that right now, the women's sport is of a poor standard (with fucking bags of potential) it might not be such a controversial talking point. 

As someone with a daughter myself, giving females the platform to achieve anything they want in life is something I, and any other respectable person would want.

TL;DR - Yes, in.

[Devil-Dick Willie]

If a commentator or pundit is accomplished enough to do the job on their merits I don't care their age, race, gender or favorite ice cream.

[Redcanuck]

I don't mind them doing pre game or post game commentary, interviews or analysis, but I draw the line on play by play commentary.   Its like nails on a chalk board,  I find it irritating.  I have to switch games or turn the sound off.

Edited December 8, 2023 by Redcanuck

[Stan]

I'd rather have female commentators and pundits in football than Joey Barton. 

He's just an asshole crying for attention. 

Absolute bellend. 

[Stan]

 

 

[Stan]

It actually infuriates me every time I see that he has spouted some shit on X or online now. Like literally makes me boil inside at how misogynistic, sexist and utterly rude he's been/being. 

The worrying thing is that you'll get some right thundercunts fully in his corner giving him encouragement. 

 

[Whiskey]

3 minutes ago, Stan said:

 

 

You can't really compare the two games though, so this isn't really an argument.

[Tommy]

12 minutes ago, Stan said:

It actually infuriates me every time I see that he has spouted some shit on X or online now. Like literally makes me boil inside at how misogynistic, sexist and utterly rude he's been/being. 

The worrying thing is that you'll get some right thundercunts fully in his corner giving him encouragement. 

 

That's what brought me to make this poll. I saw a Facebook post about the whole thing, and most comments were "Well said, Joey" or "Spot on, Barton" etc. So I wanted to make sure there are still some sane people in this world. Absolutely infuriating. 

[Tommy]

16 minutes ago, Whiskey said:

You can't really compare the two games though, so this isn't really an argument.

True. She probably had to work a lot harder and faced more adveries to get to where she is now. 

[Whiskey]

Debate is proper dead on this site.

[Stan]

6 minutes ago, Whiskey said:

Debate is proper dead on this site.

What's been said here in this thread to make you think that? 

You're the one that said there isn't even an argument

 

[Michael]

3 hours ago, LFCMike said:

 

What I am not okay with is having Joey Barton on TV as a football pundit. The man is an embarrassment! 

[Azeem]

What DDW said.

I would ideally have commentator panel like reality shows like American idol. One serious meticulous, one blowhard, one for humor, one easily irascible

[CaaC (John)+]

Nothing wrong with it, if they can play the sport why not commentate on it? you have mixed doubles (Male/Female - Tennis, Squash, etc) playing without any hassle.

Joey Barton is just an arse hole and I would love to see him put on a pair of boxing gloves and have a fight with an amateur or professional female boxer, I would sit there and piss myself laughing watching him get a battering.

[Spike]

Anybody new is better than the same old codgers saying the same boring observations ‘the little magician has a magic left peg like’

[Rucksackfranzose]

Just want good pundits. Couldn't care less, whether they're female, male, or non-binary, though. Therefore choose indifferent.

[LFCMike]

8 hours ago, Michael said:

What I am not okay with is having Joey Barton on TV as a football pundit. The man is an embarrassment! 

I don't think he has a chance of getting a punditry job, probably why he's gone so big on this. He'll have his own show on one of the right wing news channels soon enough

[RandoEFC+]

I think what Whiskey is saying and I agree is that there are a hundred thousand reasons why Joey Barton isn't worth listening to and the fact that he has 12 minutes of international football isn't really up there.

He's a tit with small man syndrome just like Andrew Tate, Laurence Fox and all the other knuckle dragging incel types with a sad cult following online.

[Stan]

1 hour ago, RandoEFC said:

think what Whiskey is saying and I agree is that there are a hundred thousand reasons why Joey Barton isn't worth listening to and the fact that he has 12 minutes of international football isn't really up there

The point being though is the irony. 

Barton is speaking out like he's some kind of beacon which he thinks gives him the right to speak about the men's game. 

But he wants to silence women in the game even though those women have more experience of the game than he does, at a better level. 

The minutes of international football isn't really the big screaming talking point. 

It's the fact he thinks he's so up there with an opinion that everyone else's doesn't matter with the pathetic logic that 'they didn't play the game'. But that doesn't really apply. It's just so narrow-minded to think this. 

Bianca Westwood wrote a fantastic piece last night to show her feelings on the whole thing. She conceded that women's football is behind men's football. But there's no wonder that's the case when you think how much of a men's industry it was off the field. Loads of people (white men) in an echo chamber and women's voices weren't heard. 

So yeah, women's football isn't the best. It doesn't claim to be. It just wants to be heard and thankfully it is continuing to do so at a high trajectory. When cunts like Barton come along with his outdated views, it somewhat puts it back a bit because the following he has. 

So yeah, I disagree that debate is dead on this site. But I don't disagree with what Whiskey actually said, and I can't see where anyone did. What Tommy said also isn't wrong. That particular example of Alex Scott is a perfect one because of all the barriers she had to break down to get that high. 

[DeadLinesman]

37 minutes ago, Stan said:

The point being though is the irony. 

Barton is speaking out like he's some kind of beacon which he thinks gives him the right to speak about the men's game. 

But he wants to silence women in the game even though those women have more experience of the game than he does, at a better level. 

The minutes of international football isn't really the big screaming talking point. 

It's the fact he thinks he's so up there with an opinion that everyone else's doesn't matter with the pathetic logic that 'they didn't play the game'. But that doesn't really apply. It's just so narrow-minded to think this. 

Bianca Westwood wrote a fantastic piece last night to show her feelings on the whole thing. She conceded that women's football is behind men's football. But there's no wonder that's the case when you think how much of a men's industry it was off the field. Loads of people (white men) in an echo chamber and women's voices weren't heard. 

So yeah, women's football isn't the best. It doesn't claim to be. It just wants to be heard and thankfully it is continuing to do so at a high trajectory. When cunts like Barton come along with his outdated views, it somewhat puts it back a bit because the following he has. 

So yeah, I disagree that debate is dead on this site. But I don't disagree with what Whiskey actually said, and I can't see where anyone did. What Tommy said also isn't wrong. That particular example of Alex Scott is a perfect one because of all the barriers she had to break down to get that high. 

Whilst I agree with the vast majority of all points on this thread, women’s international football isn’t on the same level as championship football, let alone the Premier League and other top levels. As much of a compete cunt bellend he is, Joey Barton has far more experience of men’s elite football than Alex Scott. However, I’d still rather listen to her.

[Danny]

Ultimately what you want from a pundit is tactical analysis and you dont need to have played at a high level at all to provide that.

Womens football and mens football are worlds apart in quality but it is still the same sport, the same tactics, the same training methods etc so they can still speak from experience and apply tactical understandings to that, that other players in the mens game may lack.

[RandoEFC+]

It's funny because my Mum was literally the admin of a website for a Football League team for most of my childhood and teen years. She was paid to report on football, interview the manager and players and type up match reports. Okay, it wasn't exactly deep tactical analysis but it was professional work in football. It has always confused me as a result that when she sees Alex Scott and Co on television that her reaction is the same as you'd expect from your balding (no offence Phil) middle-aged pub bore. "Oh for gods sake, it's like it's compulsory to have a woman covering every game now." I don't understand it at all because she should be better placed than almost anyone, anywhere, to know that a woman is just as capable of reporting on men's football as a man is.

My response is always the same. I ask whether Paul Merson or Graeme Souness or X, Y and Z offer better analysis than Alex Scott or their other female colleagues. 

The thing is, it's good to have first hand experience in your punditry team, that is a part of it. Neville and Carragher are good at bringing their own experience to help explain what we're watching in games, for example. But you should also be looking to provide other sorts of insight into your coverage, including commentary that can be exciting and well-informed and good tactical analysis. There are people who were Premier League footballers who don't know much at all about tactics and others who gave up at Sunday league level in their 20s who can analyse patterns of play and tactics better than almost anyone.

If you want to find people who "really know football" very well, look at the scouting departments at big football clubs. People who are absolute experts in analysing players to see if they have the skills needed to eventually improve the team that employs them, or at least represent a good opportunity for transfer profit in the future. How many of these people used to be professional footballers? Vanishingly few, to the best of my knowledge.

It just goes to show, you don't need to have first hand experience to provide good insight. It's one of many aspects that might help but beyond that, there's no reason why men or women (or even former professionals or amateurs) should be any more or less well-placed than others to know what they're talking about in a studio covering a football match.

[DeadLinesman]

2 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

 

It just goes to show, you don't need to have first hand experience to provide good insight. It's one of many aspects that might help but beyond that, there's no reason why men or women (or even former professionals or amateurs) should be any more or less well-placed than others to know what they're talking about in a studio covering a football match.

Wholeheartedly agree with this. As stated before, I’m not defending Barton, just pointing out that his experiences as a Premier League football player are far more pertinent when speaking persay from experience. However, from a tactics and analysis points of view, you don’t need to have played the game to know what you’re talking about. Souness is the prime example of a player that won everything and yet knows almost nothing about the sport.