Joey Barton: Women are not qualified to talk about men's football

Joey Barton, former Bristol Rovers manager and long considered one of the Premier League's most controversial footballers, has criticised the presence of women as commentators at football matches.

The former Manchester City, Newcastle, Rangers, Marseille and Burnley player claimed that "women are not qualified" to talk about men's football, "they have no authority on the subject", in a clear attack on Alex Scott (BBC Football), Laura Woods (TNT) and Bianca Westwood (Sky Sports).

"I'm bothered about the female footballers who aren't good enough players to comment on the males players because they don't understand the game," he wrote on Twitter.

"They are taking men's jobs that our good enough. They are taking their opportunities Taking food out of their families' mouths. When those men have done the hard yards."

Joey Barton believes that "women should not speak with any kind of authority in men's football. Come on, let's be serious. Let's be serious. It's a completely different game. If you don't accept it, we'll always see things differently. Women's football is thriving. Fantastic to see. I can't take anything they say in the men's game seriously."

"John Terry said what we all thought a long time ago," said Joey Barton recalling a criticised comment by the former Chelsea man during the 2018 World Cup.

"I'll have to watch this game without volume," Terry said of the Portugal vs Morocco commentary by Vicki Sparks.

Joey Barton, referring to Terry and his comment, said that "John had to pretend his TV was broken. He's worth about 100m, he was captain of Chelsea and England and he had to resort to lying to stop them attacking him".