20 December 2023 , 10:01
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Alex Scott’s amazing reaction to Mary Earp’s Sports Personality of the Year award was caught on camera – after both women fell victim to a sexist backlash recently.
England and Manchester United goalkeeper Earps beamed as she won the coveted BBC award last night, as former Lioness Alex appeared to mouth: “Come on the Earps!” as the trophy was handed out.
Women’s football legend Jill Scott, who won the 2022 series of I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here, also looked on proudly from the audience as the award - which is voted for by the public - was given to a woman for the third year in a row.
Sharing the clip, BBC Sport wrote: “Once a Lioness, always a Lioness. Look how happy @JillScottJS8 and @AlexScott are for Mary Earps.” While most fans were quick to congratulate Earps, others branded the decision “woke” and suggested it should have gone to someone who “won something”.
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, Piers Morgan fumed: “Trying to get my head around two of England's women footballers winning BBC SPOTY in successive years… while male sporting superstars with great personalities like Rory McIlroy, Frankie Dettori and Ronnie O'Sullivan have never won it. No offence to Ms Earps, but shouldn't it have been given to someone who actually won something in 2023?"
Earps reacts to FIFA Best nomination and on season so far with Man Utd
England goalkeeper Mary Earps holds her Sports Personality of the Year trophy (Twitter)
Former Lioness Alex Scott couldn't be prouder as she reacts to Earps' win (Twitter)While former England footballer Joey Barton tweeted “well done Mary”, he has come under fire recently for claiming women shouldn't be allowed to give their opinion on men's football. He went on to query the number of women who currently commentate on top-flight games, before questioning their credentials to do so.
Taking particular aim at presenter and commentator Alex Scott – who won 140 caps for England's women's team – Barton told Piers Morgan Uncensored: “She hasn’t played in it [the men's game]. One is 200 years old and one is about 40 years old… It’s the same rules but football is about a lot more than rules… The games are at two different speeds."
Earlier, Barton had said on social media: "Women shouldn’t be talking with any kind of authority in the men’s game. Come on. Let’s be serious. It’s a completely different game. If you don’t accept that. We will always see things differently. The women’s game is thriving. Fantastic to see. I cannot take a thing they say serious in the men’s arena."
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Hitting back at Barton’s ‘sexist’ comments, Alex took a swipe at the former football boss, who was recently sacked from Bristol Rovers, during an Instagram story. While waiting to conduct an interview at Manchester United, Scott was seen chatting to a man sitting in shot. After light-heartedly asking if he was conducting an interview, he then asked what Scott was going to discuss. She quipped back: "Joey Barton?", before breaking into laughter.
Sports journalist Bianca Westwood, who was the first female match reporter on Soccer Saturday, responded to Barton's claims that women were "unqualified" to speak about men's football by saying: "Who is qualified to speak on football then? I’ve been watching football for 40 years, my first game at West Ham was before Joey was even born.”
She added: "I’ve been watching hours and hours of football. I worked behind the scenes at Sky for 10 years before I was even given a shot on camera, watching my male colleagues who maybe weren’t as good as I was, getting chances I was never given
"I don’t really understand what we need to know, how long we need to work behind the scenes before we are allowed on camera. To be a pundit, the laws are the same. Emma Hayes and Sarina Wiegman can both read the game, are you saying they can’t offer an insight?
"Sounds like to me that Joey has a problem with particular pundits who haven’t done enough in the game, but how does he know? And how do we quantify that? What level - as far as Joey Barton is concerned - do you have to get before you can be an expert on the ‘men’s game’?"