18 October 2023 , 14:41
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Former England football star Jill Scott has revealed that she has become the target of vile trolls who send her abusive messages on social media for being a female TV pundit.
Jill, 36, who was also crowned winner of I'm A Celebrity last year, appeared on Loose Women alongside Coleen Nolan, Jane Moore and Judi Love. When asked by Jane if she gets a bit of stick by football fans for commenting on matches, including the recent Euro 2024 qualifying matches, Jill agreed. She told the viewers of the daytime discussion show: "I'd like to say no but yeah you do."
Jill Scott talks about online abuse as a female TV pundit (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)She added: "A soon as it's the men's football, it's like 'well you've never played the men's game so what do you know'. No, but the women brought it home! For me it's just football.
"Ian Wright does the women's football and he's very good at it. At the end of the day, you're just talking about football whether its male, whether it's female. I try and stay off Twitter.
"Twitter is usually the one where you do get a lot of negativity. But since being very young and playing a boy's game from a very young age, you used to get the parents shouting if you beat their precious son in a football match."
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Earlier this month, Kevin Keegan faced criticism for saying that female footballers were not qualified to express an opinion on the male version of the game. In a controversial interview with The Times during an event in Bristol, the 72-year-old ex-footballer said: "I don't like to listen to ladies talking about the England men's team at the match because I don't think it's the same experience.
"I have a problem with that. The presenters we have now, some of the girls are so good, they are better than the guys. It's a great time for the ladies." He added: "But if I see an England lady footballer saying about England against Scotland at Wembley and she's saying, 'If I would have been in that position I would have done this,' I don't think it's quite the same. I don't think it crosses over that much."
But Jill says that from a young age she had learned to build a resistance to cruel comments. She added: "I think from a young age my resilience was building up so I'd like to think I'm quite thick skinned. I don't think you should have to be really you should be able to do your job and enjoy it."
Speaking about a time when she was eight or nine years old she said the abuse used to come from the parents of the children she played against. She continued: "The boys used to be ok, they used to accept that you could play football and want you on their team but some of the parents would be like 'kick that girl' and stuff like that. I used to leave the pitch in tears. But I always picked my football boots up on a Tuesday because there was nothing that was going to stop us from playing a game that I love."