“Women should not talk about men’s football”… Joey Barton’s tweets prompt British Sports Minister to react

For the past month, the former England midfielder has been posting on social media in which he insists that “women should not talk about men’s football”.

As a player, he did not leave a lasting memory in Ligue 1. Of his season with OM, only his altercation with Zlatan Ibrahimovic remained in the memories. Now retired (since 2017), the sulphurous Joey Barton has returned to the forefront in Great Britain, where his diatribes against women (generally former players) working as football consultants on television have been increasing for a while. month. To the point that Sports Minister Stuart Andrew promised, Tuesday January 9, to intervene with social media platforms to take action against the comments “dangerous” of the former player.

The starting point of the escalation dates back to December 7 when Joey Barton, known for his outrageous positions since his beginnings as a consultant in 2017, wrote on his X account (formerly Twitter): “Women should not talk about men’s football with any authority. Let’s be serious. It’s a completely different game. If you don’t accept that, we will always see things differently. Women’s football is booming. C “It’s fantastic. But I can’t take anything they say about men’s football seriously.”.

Personal attacks against several women

Quickly viral (almost 10 million views), the tweet ignited the powder. Rather than delete it, Barton, who admitted to drinking “four pints” at the time of writing, hammered home his point of view with other messages. “These tweets only encourage group criticism of women and their way of working”, replied presenter Laura Woods. For his part, Alex Scott, the former England international (140 caps), wished not to add fuel to the fire : “I don’t have a podcast to promote or the need to try to use a platform like this to bully and demean others”.

“I stand by everything I said about women commentating on men’s football. It’s like talking about knitting or netball. Too far out of my comfort zone.”

Joey Barton

on X (formerly Twitter)

Questioned on the subject, Emma Hayes, the coach of the Chelsea women’s team, tried to gain a little perspective while taking care not to “enter staff”. “If you haven’t experienced systemic misogyny, you can’t understand how damaging these conversations are, especially since it doesn’t take much on social media for people to attack women. (…) I think that sport is one of the last areas in society where male privilege continues to exist. If I play it Darwinist and invoke the theory of evolution, when there is “If there is an existential threat, you either evolve or you die. It’s one or the other. The only thing left to do to continue to feel relevant is to make a lot of noise.”she explained at length at a press conference on December 8.

One of the hyperactive types on social media, Joey Barton relied on the sudden media exposure (and his 2.8 million subscribers) to promote his new show.Common Sense with Joey Barton”, launched on Youtube on December 15 with a video where he meets the American anti-feminist Pearl Davis. Any opportunity to bounce back was seized. For example, he reacted to the appointment of the English goalkeeper Mary Earps for the title of sports personality of the year by declaring that if he had 100 penalties to take against her, he would score 100, qualifying her in passing as “big potato bag”.

A heavy liability as an aggressor

Joey Barton took it to another level by violently attacking Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward, two former players who served as consultants for ITV. He described them as “Fred and Rose West from football commentary”in reference to a couple of serial killers, accused them of destroying marriages and using “pillow talk” For “advance their career”. Remarks which pushed the ITV channel to condemn the remarks “vindictive” And “shameful” from the former Manchester City or Newcastle player.

This is not the first time that the latter finds himself in the eye of the storm. Joey Barton has long had a reputation as a “bad-boy” from the time he walked the pitches of the Premier League, before he repeatedly crossed the limits of legality. He has to his credit several bad gestures on opponents, in matches, but also attacks on teammates including the Frenchman Ousmane Dabo, who almost lost the use of his eye in 2007 after an altercation with the native of Huyton.

Then a Manchester City player, he received a 4-month suspended prison sentence, a match suspension and left the club through the back door. A few months later, he attacked two people in the street, including a teenager, which earned him 77 days in prison. During his visit to Marseille in 2012, after these affairs, the Englishman had sold a redemption operation, before insulting, already on social networks, against several PSG players. He notably described Thiago Silva as “overweight transsexual”.

Despite the Minister of Sports speaking out, Barton maintained his position. “I would be more than happy to have you on my podcast Stuart Andrew”, did he even make fun of it on. No sign of appeasement on the horizon.