09 January 2024 , 17:46
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Sports minister Stuart Andrew admits he will take up Joey Barton's social media comments with the respective platform as he condemned his "dangerous" remarks directed at female commentators.
The former Premier League football, who was sacked as Bristol Rovers manager last year, has continued to take aim at females who give their opinion on the men's game. He kept up that crusade when he took aim at Mary Earps after she was named the BBC Sports Personalty of the Year last month.
Recently he described ITV pundits Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward as “the Fred and Rose West of football commentary” on social media after they appeared on channel’s coverage of Crystal Palace ’s FA Cup draw with Everton last week. The broadcaster hit back at Barton's comments with Gary Neville among those to also defend them.
Now Andrew has been asked by Labour MP and Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee member Julie Elliott whether he would condemn the comments, and he said: “Yes I would. These are comments that open the floodgates for abuse and that’s not acceptable.
“I’m always wary in these situations that these sort of people want the oxygen and I don’t want to fuel that. I want to put on record my thanks for the amazing contribution that women and girls make to football and sport more generally.” Andrew also said he would "happily" take up Barton's comments with the social media platforms.
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The one-cap England international's controversial views have been occurring for weeks and on Piers Morgan Uncensored he claimed that there were "token" roles being given to women pundits and commentators.
He said: "I've seen in my game where - I do feel I have enough credibility to say I’m a bonafide expert - I’ve seen tokenism creeping in, and it’s ruining my experience and the journalistic standards. It’s nothing to do with sexism at all.”
Joey Barton has continued to broadcast his views on social media (James Marsh/REX/Shutterstock)Barton also added: “Obviously it helps if you’ve played at a high level because it gives you a unique perspective. There are similarities between both sports but the men’s game is played at a completely different speed and completely different skill set.
"So for someone to stand there and say ‘I would have done that’ or ‘he’s made a mistake there’ who have no experience of that - and it’s not just one or two, it’s being taken over and ruining the experience."