Key Highlights
- He received a criminal sentence for harmful social media posts targeting Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko.
- eter Powell/ReutersFootball has seen a steep rise in reports of sexism – now we can break the cycleHollie VarneyIf action is taken, the so-called ‘banter’ used to victimise women who take part in the sport will soon diminishAfter six days in which a former player was held accountable in court for sexist comments and a current manager was charged by the Football Association with using sexist language, are we seeing a change in how that behaviour is tackled?For years, talk of so-called “banter” has been used to silence complaints and it has been a struggle to convince football that sexism and misogyny even exist, but there are signs the sport is finally waking up. Last week, Joey Barton received a criminal sentence for harmful social media posts targeting the pundits Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko for doing their jobs.
- Aluko was targeted by racially charged posts, too. A few days earlier, Barnet’s Dean Brennan had become the first EFL manager to be charged with sexist abuse towards a female referee.
- He has denied the charge.
- That comes after cases in non-league in the past two months where where Hemel Hempstead Town were fined and a match at Coventry Sphinx was abandoned because of abuse towards female officials. This type of abuse is vile and nothing new, but the visibility of those outcomes is.
