Joey Barton

[SithHappens]

JB is right to point out that televised football has an inordinate number of female presenters, pundits, commentators, etc. There is an increasing female presence among the 'experts' that cover games so the accusation of tokenism is well founded. But tokenism in the game is nothing new. All featured games, PL or WSL, have their fair share of token blacks giving their expert two penneth about how round a football is. One form of tokenism is condemned while the other is taken for granted.

I think when he starts suggesting women should stick to knitting etc and making comments about Mary Earps weight he loses the room.

So if he feels people are losing opportunities because people are employing women I wouldn't have an issue if he articulated it with some proper substance rather than insults.

On the subject of token 'blacks' I can't think of anyone currently giving their 'two penneth' who should step aside for a white person. I'm not about to do the math but I feel the number of white males in the media doing commentary etc still exceeds the number of women or 'blacks'

[MadAmster]

I think when he starts suggesting women should stick to knitting etc and making comments about Mary Earps weight he loses the room.

Mary Earps. Excellent keeper. Worked extremely hard to get where she is and is a tremendous role model for keepers, both male and female. She is articulate. Comes across as being eminently sensible, intelligent and caring. I found her SPOTY "wardrobe" to be very daring and she absolutely killed it. She appears to be the full package. There are a lot of people out there who would be very jealous about that. Is JB one of them?

[Andy_Faber]

Mary Earps. Excellent keeper. Worked extremely hard to get where she is and is a tremendous role model for keepers, both male and female. She is articulate. Comes across as being eminently sensible, intelligent and caring. I found her SPOTY "wardrobe" to be very daring and she absolutely killed it. She appears to be the full package. There are a lot of people out there who would be very jealous about that. Is JB one of them?

Ignoring the career bigots who would argue against ANY female representation, I will however make the point that BBC pushed Earps extremely hard in terms of screen time compared to the other nominees, both before and after the nominees were announced. I could suggest a number of reasons for that but I’ll just leave it as a fact.

NB I voted for KJT

[Geoff Parkstone]

With no disrespect intended (which of course usually means the opposite) when I saw Earps had won in I actually resorted to Google to see who she was.

I regard myself as very well aware of the sports landscape globally yet this is the first time I've never heard of a SPOTY winner. This is probably a case of my ignorance and of not following the given sport, but "personality" - really? So I asked my son who is a bigger football follower then me, and has even been to women's PL matches - and he didn't know who she is either.

So I googled deeper and saw reference to Nike not even marketing a replica shirt for her during women's world cup: sounds like they hadn't heard of her either. So now she is up there with the greats of British sports.

Then I recalled that a women's footballer won it last year as well. Guess that says all we need to know about state of UK sport in that what is still a minority sport, where no home country has won a global title, now dominates BBC awards.

If BBC had got broadcasting rights for women's premier League I could understand the strategy but I don't think they have. So, I just don't get it. Must be the angry old bloke in me coming through 😄

[Andy_Faber]

I think when he starts suggesting women should stick to knitting etc and making comments about Mary Earps weight he loses the room.

So if he feels people are losing opportunities because people are employing women I wouldn't have an issue if he articulated it with some proper substance rather than insults.

On the subject of token 'blacks' I can't think of anyone currently giving their 'two penneth' who should step aside for a white person. I'm not about to do the math but I feel the number of white males in the media doing commentary etc still exceeds the number of women or 'blacks'

This has been discussed here before and it has caused some of the most vitriolic exchanges we've seen. Those that HAVE 'done the math' point out that the occurence of non-white (and for that matter non-hetero and non-Christian) 'faces' far exceed the national demographic, with the two opposing factions declaring on one hand 'its box-ticking/tokenism/virtue signalling' and on the other 'its the view of bigots/racists/Nazis'. My own interest is because of my strong belief that we (the plebs) are conditioned (the current fashionable word is gaslighted I believe) by the media into a line of belief of their choosing

[Andy_Faber]

With no disrespect intended (which of course usually means the opposite) when I saw Earps had won in I actually resorted to Google to see who she was.

I regard myself as very well aware of the sports landscape globally yet this is the first time I've never heard of a SPOTY winner. This is probably a case of my ignorance and of not following the given sport, but "personality" - really? So I asked my son who is a bigger football follower then me, and has even been to women's PL matches - and he didn't know who she is either.

So I googled deeper and saw reference to Nike not even marketing a replica shirt for her during women's world cup: sounds like they hadn't heard of her either. So now she is up there with the greats of British sports.

Then I recalled that a women's footballer won it last year as well. Guess that says all we need to know about state of UK sport in that what is still a minority sport, where no home country has won a global title, now dominates BBC awards.

If BBC had got broadcasting rights for women's premier League I could understand the strategy but I don't think they have. So, I just don't get it. Must be the angry old bloke in me coming through ��

BBC has partial rights to WSL and England games.

[GUNTERYY36]

Mary Earps. Excellent keeper. Worked extremely hard to get where she is and is a tremendous role model for keepers, both male and female. She is articulate. Comes across as being eminently sensible, intelligent and caring. I found her SPOTY "wardrobe" to be very daring and she absolutely killed it. She appears to be the full package. There are a lot of people out there who would be very jealous about that. Is JB one of them?

Totally agree. But I'd go further and suggest she be given a special award for not rising to the bait of a mindless oaf who's probably better at kicking opponents in the groin than given a fair assessment of another player. His cruel and childish personal insults and portrayal of women's football in general underline what a nasty piece of work he really is.

[Geoff Parkstone]

BBC has partial rights to WSL and England games.

So maybe that explains the outcome of the last 2 spoty's

[Andy_Faber]

So maybe that explains the outcome of the last 2 spoty's

The more suspicious amongst us might conclude that. I don't recall last year's event at all but I've been suspicious that BBC are 'influencing' the outcome since they limited the possible winners to a list of nominees of their choosing a few years ago

[ramAnag]

JB is right to point out that televised football has an inordinate number of female presenters, pundits, commentators, etc. There is an increasing female presence among the 'experts' that cover games so the accusation of tokenism is well founded. But tokenism in the game is nothing new. All featured games, PL or WSL, have their fair share of token blacks giving their expert two penneth about how round a football is. One form of tokenism is condemned while the other is taken for granted.

Jesus...I wait all morning for the power to be restored and then we get this rubbish. I think Sith’s post #38 must have some how predicted your response. ‘Token blacks’? Wtf does that mean?
We all have our opinions Gunteryy but yours increasingly make you sound like a racist, misogynistic knob, indeed I think you’re even quite proud of your prejudice. I hope you have a Happy Christmas but equally I wish you’d keep your views away from our forum...it lowers the tone and is, frankly, not welcome.