{"id":44363,"date":"2025-04-23T17:10:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T17:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/44363\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T17:10:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T17:10:13","slug":"eni-aluko-accuses-ian-wright-of-blocking-opportunities-for-female-pundits-by-dominating-womens-football-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/44363\/","title":{"rendered":"Eni Aluko accuses Ian Wright of blocking opportunities for female pundits by ‘dominating’ women’s football coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eni Aluko has accused Ian Wright of blocking opportunities for female pundits in women’s football<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aluko, 38, took aim at the Arsenal<\/a> legend – who has been a major advocate of the women’s game – pointedly saying he should be aware of how much space he takes up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The former England<\/a> and Chelsea<\/a>\u00a0forward was speaking on Radio Four’s Women’s Hour<\/a> and said: ‘I\u2019ve worked with Ian a long time and, you know, I think he\u2019s a brilliant broadcaster, but I think he\u2019s aware of just how much he\u2019s doing in the women\u2019s game. I think he should be aware of that.<\/p>\n

‘The fact of the matter is, there is a limited amount of spaces available. If we had a situation where there was an equal opportunity in the men\u2019s game for broadcasters and coaches that there is in the women\u2019s game, it\u2019s a free for all.<\/p>\n

‘But that\u2019s not the case. I can\u2019t dominate the men\u2019s game in the way that, you know, you used Ian as an example.’<\/p>\n

When asked to clarify if she thinks it is wrong for Wright, 61, to be a figure at the forefront of coverage of women’s football, Aluko added: ‘I don\u2019t know about wrong, but I think we need to be conscious and we need to make sure that women are not being blocked from having a pathway into broadcasting in the women\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\"Ian <\/p>\n

Ian Wright (right) has been accused by Eni Aluko (left) of blocking opportunities for women<\/p>\n

\"Laura <\/p>\n

Laura Woods (left), Aluko (right) and Wright work together for the Women’s World Cup qualifier between England and North Macedonia back in 2001<\/p>\n

‘It\u2019s still new, it\u2019s still growing. There\u2019s a finite amount of opportunities and I think that men need to be aware of that.<\/p>\n

‘Men need to be aware that, you know, you\u2019re in a growing sport, a growing sport for women, and we haven\u2019t always had these opportunities, and so it\u2019s about the awareness and supporting other women through that pathway.’<\/p>\n

Wright launched a podcast alongside Steph Houghton last year about the women’s game and regularly speaks about it with Kelly Cates on the BBC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The much-loved pundit is also a regular fixture on screens covering the men’s game and sits alongside Gary Neville, Roy Keane and Jill Scott on The Overlap.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wright has previously spoken out in support of female pundits who have suffered abuse in the past, insisting they ‘deserve’ their roles and saying he was ’embarrassed’ about vitriol sent their way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aluko, along with Alex Scott and Karen Carney, is among the female pundits to have been targeted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And she believes her broadcasting career has been damaged by the ongoing civil libel case against Joey Barton.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following Aluko’s claims, Mail Sport have approached Wright for his response.<\/p>\n

Aluko is suing the former Manchester City<\/a>\u00a0and Newcastle midfielder for libel over two posts he made in January last year on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Wright, <\/p>\n

Wright, Karen Carney and Aluko share a laugh while working on punditry duty for ITV in 2023<\/p>\n

Barton, 42, made comments which had a defamatory meaning when he accused her of being a ‘race card player’,\u00a0 a judge ruled two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

The judge also found that while the other post did not have a defamatory meaning, it did have a defamatory ‘innuendo meaning’.<\/p>\n

Despite winning the first stage of the case, which Barton could still appeal, Aluko claims her punditry career has been damaged.<\/p>\n

‘This happens in lots of industries – when women stand up for themselves, their career takes a hit,’ she told\u00a0BBC Radio 4<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I’ve been doing broadcasting for 11 years. I’m not new to it. And in the last 18 months I’ve done the least TV I’ve ever done.<\/p>\n

‘That’s just a fact. That’s not a feeling, that’s an opinion. That’s a fact. So I think people can draw their own conclusions from that.<\/p>\n

According to the Internet Commentator Database<\/a>, Aluko made 44 punditry appearances in 2023, but that figure dropped to 27 last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She added:\u00a0‘There is a double standard where there is still a limited amount of opportunities for women, female broadcasters, both in the men’s and the women’s game.<\/p>\n

\"Joey <\/p>\n

Joey Barton made comments which had a defamatory meaning, a judge ruled\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Aluko <\/p>\n

Aluko said she left her house in disguise because of the hearing and is ‘more self-conscious’<\/p>\n

‘We’re still competing for two or three seats maximum, which includes the presenters.<\/p>\n

‘What the Joey Bartons, and some male football fans, want is for women to get off the TV.’<\/p>\n

Aluko also said she left her house in disguise because of the hearing and that Barton’s tweets have impacted her in real life and made her feel ‘more self-conscious’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I don’t feel that I can just go out and be free to do what I do. For the first week I was disguising myself and some people think that’s over the top, but that’s genuinely the impact it had on me,’ she added.<\/p>\n

Barton’s first post on X on January 17 2024, said: ‘Surprise, Surprise,’ followed by a screenshot from a Guardian article with the headline, ‘FA faces calls for fresh investigation after Eni Aluko’s claims of racism and bullying.’<\/p>\n

On the same day he wrote: ‘Cry me a f***ing river… I was waiting for the victim card to be played.<\/p>\n

‘Eni, sorry luv, you’re dreadful as a pundit.’<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, two days later Barton posted: ‘More has come to light about poor, little Eni Aluko.<\/p>\n

\"Aluko <\/p>\n

Aluko made 105 appearances for the Lionesses and played Chelsea and Juventus<\/p>\n

‘Dad was a Nigerian Senator. Dodgy money. Ran to England. Massive house in Wentworth. 3 Rolls Royce’s. St Mary’s in Ascot private education. Lawyer, Race card player.’<\/p>\n

The judge said: ‘That was a statement of opinion insofar as it accused the claimant of hypocrisy and a statement of fact insofar as it meant that the claimant had on at least one occasion cynically sought to exploit her race.<\/p>\n

‘It was defamatory in both respects. ‘Race card player’ is clearly a derogatory term.’<\/p>\n

In a separate criminal case, Barton is accused of sending offensive communications to Aluko with intent to cause distress or anxiety under the Malicious Communications Act.<\/p>\n

The charges arise out of a series of posts in January last year, in which he allegedly compared Aluko and fellow pundit Lucy Ward to serial killers Fred and Rose West.<\/p>\n

In a follow-up tweet, he allegedly compared Aluko to Joseph Stalin and Pol Pot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eni Aluko has accused Ian Wright of blocking opportunities for female pundits in women’s football.\u00a0 Aluko, 38, took…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[161,885,92,393,94,93,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-44363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-arsenal","9":"tag-chelsea","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114388390668479967","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}