Former England international Eni Aluko has claimed that men continue “dominating” coaching and broadcasting roles within women’s football, 10 years on from when she became the first female pundit on BBC’s Match of the Day.
In 2019, Aluko retired from an 18-year playing career that involved stints at Chelsea and Juventus, and she has since held director roles at club including Aston Villa and LA-based Angel City FC.
She first appeared on Match of the Day in September 2014, and her comments regarding the state of the women’s game came in response to a LinkedIn post celebrating this achievement.
The post was written by talent agency Tongue Tied Management, and it read: “10 years ago today Eniola Aluko MBE made history becoming the first woman to be a pundit on Match of the Day”.
“As an agency we had pushed for this for years and Tongue Tied Management’s very own Jo Tongue MBE was working hard behind the scenes to make this happen.
“Since then Eni has paved the way for female involvement in the men’s game in both punditry and on commentary. A huge shout out to BBC, ITV, Sky, Amazon Prime, and TNT Sports for continuing to support women in the men’s game.
“There is still a long way to go but we are so proud of what Eni has achieved so far.”
Aluko responded to the post by thanking “Jo Tongue MBE & Tongue Tied Management for the love and respect acknowledging 10 years since making my first appearance on Match of the Day as the first female footballer to appear on MOTD”, adding that “Jo and I believed that women should have a prominent voice in football”.
However, she added: “I would love to be able to say in 10 years we’ve progressed in terms of women in football broadcasting. In some ways we have gone backwards.”
Aluko proceeded to discuss the areas where she feels the game is falling short.
“1. There are still only one or two maximum regular punditry spots for women across several broadcasters. Pundits and Presenters are two different roles.
“2. Men are now dominating broadcasting (and coaching) in the women’s game because more money has become available. This includes male agents with exploitative financially driven agendas within women’s football demanding 20% commissions from salaries that are nowhere near the level of the men’s game. Women can never dominate the men’s game in the same way.
“3. Sexism, misogyny and racism is still widespread within football fan culture. Some football broadcasters need to rapidly improve their duty of care towards pundits who receive such abuse. Sexism, misogyny, racism are not ‘part of the job’.
“There is still a long way to go,” she added.
The 37-year-old has previously been the victim of the misogynistic and racist abuse that she mentions, with ex-Premier League footballer Joey Barton charged with accusations of malicious communications over a series of tweets sent to Aluko. The trial relating to that charge is set to take place in May of next year.