Alex Scott has mocked Joey Barton after the former Bristol Rovers manager made a series of social media posts about female football pundits. Barton stirred up controversy earlier this week, saying that women "shouldn't be talking" about men's football "with any kind of authority".
He also suggested that men who listen to female commentators "needs their heads testing" and questioned the credentials of the women who do commentate and co-commentate on matches. Piers Morgan challenged Barton to appear on his TV show - Piers Morgan Uncensored - to debate his comments.
While appearing on the show, he took aim at Football Focus host Alex Scott, as reported by the Mirror. She has since become a frequent pundit since her retirement, but apparently her 140 appearances for England, and 148 at Arsenal were not enough for Barton.
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"She hasn’t played in it [the men's game]," Barton said of Scott during his appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored. "One is 200 years old and one is about 40 years old… It’s the same rules but football is about a lot more than rules… The games are at two different speeds."
Scott hit back in an Instagram story posted Friday morning (December 8). The BBC Football Focus host was seen chatting to a man while waiting to conduct an interview at Manchester United.
The man asked what Scott was planning to discuss. She replied: "Joey Barton?", before breaking out in laughter.
Barton has been heavily criticised for his comments on X, formerly known as Twitter, in which he said: "Women shouldn’t be talking with any kind of authority in the men’s game. Come on. Let’s be serious.
"It’s a completely different game. If you don’t accept that. We will always see things differently. The women’s game is thriving. Fantastic to see. I cannot take a thing they say serious in the men’s arena."
He later added: "Any man who listens to Women commentary or co-comms needs their heads testing…"
But the former Rovers boss doubled down during his appearance on Piers Morgan's show. He challenged Laura Woods and Bianca Westwood, two other prominent football broadcasting figures, to debate his viewpoints.
He posted: "Anyone who wants to come and debate me in this space? All genders are welcome. It will be two hours of raw debate. Unedited. Any of you brave enough?"
Westwood ultimately did challenge Barton on the show, responding to Barton's claims that women were "unqualified" to speak about men's football by saying: "Who is qualified to speak on football then? I’ve been watching football for 40 years, my first game at West Ham was before Joey was even born.
"I’ve been watching hours and hours of football. I worked behind the scenes at Sky for 10 years before I was even given a shot on camera, watching my male colleagues who maybe weren’t as good as I was, getting chances I was never given.
"I don’t really understand what we need to know, how long we need to work behind the scenes before we are allowed on camera. To be a pundit, the laws are the same. Emma Hayes and Sarina Wiegman can both read the game, are you saying they can’t offer an insight?
"Sounds like to me that Joey has a problem with particular pundits who haven’t done enough in the game, but how does he know? And how do we quantify that? There’s EFL players who are commentating, co-commentating on Champions League games. So what level - as far as Joey Barton is concerned - do you have to get before you can be an expert on the ‘men’s game’?"
