18 October 2023 , 21:49
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A former Sky Sports chief has said that it's now "harder" for men to break through in punditry than women.
Barney Francis, currently the executive vice president of media giant IMG, believes that the sector has become "enlightened" by more female voices which is in turn making less room for males. His comments come after former England manager Kevin Keegan revealed that he "had a problem" with female football pundits talking about the England men's team, such as Jill Scott.
"I think it's a lot harder actually now to get cut-through as a male commentator than it is as a female commentator," Francis is quoted as saying by the Telegraph. "If we're just watching the same and hearing the same tone of voice, type of analysis, it gets tedious."
He went on to reveal while speaking at an event at Twickenham: "I bumped into an agent downstairs at lunchtime who said, 'Can I talk to you about my roster of clients' and they were all men and that's not being discriminatory. But I said the only chance they've got to break through is if they're going to bring something different."
Francis noted that ex- Manchester City defender Micah Richards - who's a prominent male pundit for Sky, the BBC and CBS Sports - has "really bought something different" which allows him to thrive in a changing landscape. Francis added: "I just take three examples: Jill Scott, Karen Carney, Emma Hayes - all very, very different in what they bring. Super talented in what they bring, very different approaches, very different tone. And that's so enlightened."
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Former Lioness Scott, who won the European Championships last year, recently opened up on the stick which she gets given from football fans by telling the ITV show Loose Women : "I'd like to say no but yeah you do [receive abuse]. 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.
Karen Carney and Laura Woods are seen more prominently than ever (Richard Sellers/Getty Images)"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."