Eni Aluko is an icon of English women’s football. She racked up goals for various clubs in various countries. She earned 105 caps for England, netting 33 goals, and represented Team GB at the Olympics.
However, Aluko has again found herself in a media firestorm. Last week, she repeated her criticisms of male pundits who cover the women’s game. The former forward hit out at Ian Wright and Nedum Onuoha by name. In particular, she accused Wright of blocking her opportunities and refusing to support her.
I do not like the online pile-on Aluko has suffered since her comments on the 90s Baby podcast. However, she is also quite simply wrong. Again. As I wrote when this row first broke out in April last year:
Women’s football has, for years, needed respected advocates from the men’s side of the game to help it gain media traction. Wright has done this as a pundit for years, long before it was cool, in a genuine and unpatronising manner.
Ian Wright knows what he is talking about, and that is the key qualification to be a pundit. Similar could be said for Onuoha, who is one of the most insightful and eloquent pundits around. Should women, including Aluko, get opportunities alongside such men? Yes. But there is no justifiable argument that Wright or Onuoha’s presence is detrimental to women’s football. They help grow it.
Eni Aluko, Ian Wright, and Building Women’s Football
All aspects of women’s football, including media coverage, are having to play catch-up with the men’s game. (That happens when you ban something for a number of years. Thank you, the FA.) Improvements have been rapid, though, although there is a way to go.
Broadcasters do tend to let women, and ex-players especially, take key roles in their coverage. For example, Gilly Flaherty, Fara Williams and Ellen White were all on duty for the BBC at the Spurs vs Chelsea game this weekend.
The ultimate, logical end of Aluko’s argument is that if almost only women should feature in women’s football coverage, only men should feature in men’s football coverage. That does nobody any good.
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