"It’s gone too far."
Anyone who has been on X recently will have seen the barrage of posts made by
Joey Barton slating female pundits in football, and now
Gary Neville has joined the debate.
Barton, who played for Premier League sides such as Man City and Newcastle, has always been controversial for comments and actions made during his playing days, even serving a prison sentence for one offence.
Since retiring, Barton tried his hand at managing teams in the lower leagues but had little to no success, and has since started trying to push his new podcast, based on 'free speech', with the main topic of conversation being female pundits, and how he believes they should 'stick to the women's game.'
On Thursday, ITV had two female pundits, Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward, covering the FA Cup tie between Crystal Palace and Everton.
https://twitter.com/itvfootball/status/1743320409364107484
ITV release statement condemning Joey Barton's 'serial killer' comments.
The once-capped England player took to social media after the game, and compared the pundits to as "the Fred and Rose West of football commentary". The Wests murdered a total of 12 women and young girls over the course of 20 years.
This resulted in ITV releasing a statement condemning Barton's comments:
"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."
https://twitter.com/GNev2/status/1743332860163952922
Gary Neville wades in on Joey Barton's 'serial killer' rant regarding female pundits.
Gary Neville, who is arguably the most well-known football pundit in the game right now, waded in on the debate, supporting ITV's statement.
The former Man United star also shared some of his own family history and their struggles with sexism and misogyny in sport.
"Well done ITV. It’s gone too far this and mentioning serial killers is quite simply incredible," Neville said on X.
"My daughters have watched Salford City with me for 10 years and like to comment on football, my mum was kicked out of the football team ( boys in the 1960’s) and stopped playing due to misogyny, my sister struggled for funding for her sport for years and my brother was mocked when he took over the England women’s team.
"I come from a family that has fought these issues for years and I’ve witnessed it first hand. All this does is just discourage and it’s not the way forward. It’s bloody hard work for Women to succeed in sport and media as it is without this stuff."
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