Former Manchester City and Newcastle midfielder Joey Barton has launched another sexist attack on the Women’s Super League, this time roping in Australian skipper Sam Kerr.
Barton has been lashed for a series of sexist social media posts in recent weeks, even attracting the attention of UK Sports Minister Stuart Andrew who has pledged to pressure social media companies to block sexist content.
Barton has come under fire for social media posts that claim that women ‘aren’t qualified’ to discuss men’s football.
Former Manchester City and Newcastle midfielder Joey Barton has come under fire for sexist social media posts
Now Barton has roped Australian skipper Sam Kerr into the mess, poking fun at a Women’s Champions League post featuring the Aussie scoring a goal for Chelsea
The comments were made during their analysis of the FA Cup third-round match between Crystal Palace and Everton for ITV last Thursday.
Barton disparaged the network for featuring Aluko and Ward in the studio, making a shocking comparison of the duo to notorious criminals Fred and Rose West.
The Wests were guilty of the murder of 12 women and young girls over a span of two decades.
Now Barton has attacked a UEFA Women’s Champions League clip on Instagram that features Kerr scoring a goal for Chelsea with the caption ‘Poetry in Motion’.
In the video, Kerr scores with one of her trademark shots. But the focus in the comments section is about the effort to stop the goal by Paris FC goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie.
Kerr is currently sidelined with an ACL and will miss the rest of the WSL season along with the Paris Olympics
Barton has shared the video with his own caption ‘The beautiful game’ including a fencing emoji, which shows he’s prepared to defend himself from any challenges in the comments.
The emoji also indicates that his comment is dripping in sarcasm and that he didn’t find the footage beautiful to watch at all.
Several of his followers were quick to jump on the bandwagon.
‘It always looks like a playground footie game where everyone chases the ball and zero talent,’ one commenter replied.
Another had a more direct response, posting: ‘Female keeper gotta be the biggest joke athlete in history’.
Confused fans also lashed the WCL for posting the video, with some asking whether they were mocking the Paris FC ‘keeper.
‘Is the official account making fun of them or is this a serious post,’ one follower asked.
Kerr (pictured celebrating a Champions League goal with teammate Erin Cuthbert) has scored an incredible 98 goals in 128 appearances for Chelsea
‘I thought this was a joke at first but it’s actually posted by CL,’ added another.
However, some football fans criticised Barton’s post.
‘Yeah because things like that never happen in the men’s game,’ one wrote, accompanied by a clip of a male keeper letting a ball slide straight through his legs and into the net.
Those sentiments were echoed by a football fan who wrote: ‘Yeah, because no male goalkeeper has been done like this before. Grow up.’
Another commented: ‘You tell women to stick to women’s football… then denigrate women’s football anyway. What is it you find so threatening? Or are you just an attention junkie? Hope your daughter has positive male role models in her life.’
