Former soccer player and manager Joey Barton has been admonished by British broadcaster ITV over his “vindictive” remarks about two of their female commentators.
Barton, no stranger to sexist controversies and allegations of violence against women, made his comments about Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday.
“How is she even talking about men’s football. She can’t even kick a ball properly,” wrote Barton in response to a clip of Aluko discussing the FA Cup match between Crystal Palace and Everton. “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 infamous serial killers who murdered at least a dozen women between 1967 and 1987 in Gloucestershire. Fred West hanged himself in prison before sentencing while Rose West is serving ten life sentences.
“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,” read an ITV statement on Friday.
A message from ITV Sport. pic.twitter.com/6To8BkNWc1
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) January 5, 2024
Unbothered, Barton responded with a fresh round of attacks.
“Shut up you ******* idiots. Keep them off the tele,” he wrote. “They’re ruining the game for everyone of us. It’s what happens when you force under qualified, under prepared, tokenistic people onto us.”
The comments aren’t anything new for Barton, who has lambasted women commenting on men’s soccer for some time now (not to mention offering up plenty of anti-trans commentary as well). On Elon Musk’s X, you can say whatever you want, but it’s fair and justified for networks to defend their commentators when you personally attack them.
Well done ITV. It’s gone too far this and mentioning serial killers is quite simply incredible.
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… https://t.co/dzFxeete0b
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) January 5, 2024
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