commentators commentate and give opinions and point out stuff during the game [ occassionally in the studio or via one off interviews ] pundits sit in studio's and watch everything in / with hindsight ... most of the time !! rarely if ever give commentaries
Much though I like Bianca Westwood, I still think Barton is right. The similarities start and end with the rules, and the name of the game only.
I think what he's trying to say is women have been put there to tick boxes rather than on merit....and I agree. unfortunately a lot of our media and broadcasting establishments have gone the same way.....Bloody sad IMO, I must be getting old!!!
Nothing to do with age 1For, it's just bloody stupid to think a woman should talk about mens professional football. That Bianca didn't do herself or any woman any favours in that debate. She thinks because she's watched football for 40 years then she's qualified to talk about the men's professional game. Utterly ridiculous.
I understand the separation between commentators and pundits and I agree about different skill set needed . Barton though was saying females shouldn't do either and not be part of the men's game full stop. You are right about "commentators commentate on what they see in front of them". Both male and female can do this if its in their ability. Barton's reasons for why he thinks females shouldn't commentate to me is wrong saying they ain't qualified like he ain't qualified to talk about knitting and netball. Females make mistakes which ruins the enjoyment of watching the game on TV. He gave an example on the Piers Morgan show of a female commentator making a mistake which ruins the experience of watching the game on TV. And a he's given other examples that he shared on twitter about mistakes from a female commentator again saying it ruined his enjoyment of watching the game on TV. Turns out these examples he gave were incorrect on his part. The female commentators didn't say anything wrong. He misheard what they said which is pretty embarrassing on his part. Reasons like tone of voice etc which has been mentioned on here is understandable as that's down to preference of what each individual likes. But Barton is not talking about that. He's saying they ain't qualified because they are female.
I actually do agree with Barton about box ticking. That is a good valid point. I just think some of the females are also there on merit so is wrong about 'all women shouldn't be in the men's game' (although he has since changed his stance on that). Some females do a better job than some of the males. It's the same about having more non white people just to tick boxes. It shouldn't matter on what gender or skin colour you have. It should be down to ability to do the job. Some male and female shouldn't be doing the job.
I feel the same. It’s just a taste thing. Almost like music. I can’t stand Michael Buble’s voice. Like nails down a blackboard. Same with Australian accents. I don’t have anything against Michael Buble or Australians in general, just their voices grate on me. Same for some people who watch football and don’t like listening to women commentate.
odd one or 2 are OK. it is how they get taught as kids there was an asian [ chinese ] I think and he had the most irritating aussie tone ever! A lot of the USA PROGRAMS Kardasians/ rip houses apart / the females seem to have excessively screechy voices??? A further comment on the numerous programs where they spend upwards of $100k to redesign the layouts of their timber framed houses .. usually always start with owners attacking kitchen or a dry lined wall ... they smash up a 2" marble work top usually about 15-20ft of it .... then they rebuild the kitchen and put in a new marble work top which is about a fifth of the budget!!! ps Dont watch these programs but see bits of them when wife has them on! ...
My wife is exactly the same! She doesn’t listen to music, instead she has these Housewive, 90 Day Fiancé type shows on in the background while she’s doing stuff. It’s nails down blackboard to me. I’ve tuned it out to some extent now, but when I first moved to Victoria in British Columbia 5 years ago, this is how pretty much every woman sounded…. And every sentence ends with the word “Riiiiiiiight???” in the same vocal fried tone.
Now I’ve recently experienced something that offended me far more than the prick, Barton. Popped up to a local pub (The Victoria) for a quick pint. It’s a bit of a basic pub - popular with arty folk and they have a live music venue at the back. Anyway, in came a bunch of about 20 or so Celtic fans - God knows what they would be doing in Swindon. They were all pissed up and singing their Celtic songs - one of which were ‘Up the RA’. I can’t post my true feelings on here because I would probably break all the profanity rules, but lets say I was very very offended - so much so I felt sick. The landlady asked them to stop - and they did for a while then started again. I drank up as quickly as I could and left. Only in the tolerant UK would this be able to happen. Sometimes we are too tolerant.
Without giving too much away what were the subject(s) of the songs ? Anti English ? Racist ? Homophobic ? Anti Rangers ? Xenaphobic ?
Most were just football chants ‘We are Glasgow Celtic…..’ etc - loud, annoying, but inoffensive. The ‘Up the RA’ chant is an Irish republican anti-British war cry in support of the IRA. Someone should tell them that outside of Ireland and Glasgow (and possibly Liverpool) those are outdated, inflammatory, unwelcome and unnecessary.
Back to the ‘Women in Football’ I see that history was made today: https://news.sky.com/story/rebecca-...oman-to-referee-premier-league-match-13036866 I didn’t know this was planned. I hope she did ok - there will be a lot of eyes on her and she will take a disproportionate amount of stick if she makes a wrong call……
Watched MOTD, she was very good. The standard of refereeing at present is generally poor imo, so the bigger the pool the better, regardless of gender, if they’re good enough, they’re good enough.
