Laura Woods has hit out at Eni Aluko after her ‘damaging’ comments on who should and shouldn’t cover women’s football on television.
The presenter also suggested there are lots of the reason why pundits are chosen for giant games, including how ‘likeable’ an individual is.
Former England forward Aluko slammed the BBC and ITV for including male pundits within the coverage of the Lionesses’ Euro 2025 final with Spain.
The 38-year-old had previously made an identical point, hitting out at Ian Wright for ‘blocking’ opportunities for female broadcasters by appearing usually on women’s football.
She subsequently issued an apology to Wright which he didn’t accept and had reignited the feud, also criticising Nedum Onuoha’s involvement within the showpiece game last 12 months.
Speaking on the 90s Baby Show podcast, she said: ‘In the ladies’s game the opportunities are much more limited, so the essential characters of the show must be the ladies.
‘Men must be a part of that. I’m not saying anybody must be excluded, I consider in diversity wholeheartedly, but the identical way we’ve played a job in the boys’s game that’s a supporting role, you’re a part of the ensemble, you’re never going to get the premium final games, it must be the identical way for ladies’s football.
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‘I feel we’d like to gatekeep the ladies’s game in a way that the boys’s game is gatekept. What I mean by that’s, and also you’ve heard me talk concerning the journey of ladies’s football, it’s taken some time, it’s taken a variety of blood, sweat and tears to get the ladies’s game to where it’s now. There’s a variety of people, including me, who’ve planted a variety of seeds to be reaping what we’re reaping now… TV, money coming into the sport, investment, and it’s still growing.
‘From my perspective, we didn’t undergo all of that – blood, sweat and tears – for ladies to be second place in our own sport. What are we doing?
‘That’s my point, the ladies’s game must be by women for ladies. Male allies should absolutely support that but when it gets to the purpose where you’re the essential character of the show, we’re just repeating the patriarchal stuff that we’ve been fighting against.
‘Now whoever that upsets, that upsets, but that’s the truth. I’ve all the time been protective about women’s football because I’ve done quite a bit, I’ve invested quite a bit, I used to be doing women’s football when it didn’t pay to do women’s football. Now we’re reaping the rewards I’m like women must be winning without delay.
‘My point is, I’ve never done a significant final in men’s football for eleven years, I’ve done three World Cups, men’s Euros, Champions League, I’ve never had that chance, and possibly rightly so, I’d probably say rightly so because again, I feel the blokes should all the time be ahead of me, the essential guys.
‘Last 12 months, on the Women’s Lionesses final, I’m sat within the stands, I wasn’t on ITV for the ultimate, Fara Williams was sat next to me, Fara Williams has 170 caps [172 caps] for England, something ridiculous, I feel she’s the most-capped player, she’s sat within the stands.
‘The 2 broadcasters that had the rights for the sport – ITV and BBC – on BBC you’ve got Ellen White, Steph Houghton and Nedum Onuoha, no offence to Nedum Onuoha, nothing against him, I don’t know whether he played for England or not, but you’re on the essential panel for the ultimate for England Women.
‘Let’s go over to ITV, I’m within the stands with 105 caps, so that you’ve got two women, between us we’ve got 290 caps, something ridiculous, you switch over to ITV and it’s Ian Wright, Emma Hayes and Kaz Carney.
‘So out of six punditry spots, two have gone to men. Meanwhile you’ve got 290 caps, whatever it’s, sitting within the stands.
‘I’ve just told you I’ve never done a final. I’m probably going to struggle to think about any women, a female pundit, who has done a men’s major final as a pundit. I’m not talking about presenters, people wish to conflate the 2, it’s a unique role, it’s like comparing a forward and a defender, it’s different jobs, I’m talking about as a pundit, it doesn’t occur, so something isn’t right there because I’m saying this remains to be quite latest where you’re watching women’s finals on TV, why are people like me and Fara not there?
‘It’s nothing against Ian, it’s nothing against them, I’m just saying broadly speaking we’d like to pay attention to that because if we’re constructing a game where the limited opportunities at the moment are being taken by men, where we are able to’t go into the boys’s game and get the identical opportunities, we’re stuck.’
Laura Woods slams ‘damaging’ comments
Woods, who has worked alongside Aluko in covering women’s football isn’t on board along with her claims in any respect and made pointed comments on who has been given the roles of working on the largest Lionesses matches.
‘Caps don’t win automatic work and so they don’t make an excellent pundit either,’ Woods wrote on X. ‘The best way you communicate, articulate yourself, do your research, inform your audience, how likeable you might be and the chemistry you have got together with your panel are what makes an excellent pundit.
‘”The ladies’s game must be by women for ladies,” is one of the damaging phrases I’ve heard. It would not only drag women’s sport backwards, it’ll drag women’s punditry in all types of the sport backwards.
‘If you should grow something, you don’t gate keep it. We would like to encourage little boys and men to observe women’s football too, not only little women and girls. And after they see someone like Ian Wright taking it as seriously as he does – they follow suit. That’s the way you grow a sport.
‘Here’s an image of our team at ITV. We won best production on the Broadcast Sport Awards 2025 for our coverage of the ladies’s euros. Seb Hutchinson won best commentator too. So I feel ITV got it excellent.’
Aluko was asked if the answer is to usher in more female pundits for high-profile matches in the boys’s game, she replied: ‘I feel that will make it more fair.
‘If I’m not doing the ladies’s final but I’m getting a job doing the boys’s final then it’s what it’s, but I can never do the boys’s final so the one way I even have a chance is to do the ladies’s final but now I can’t do the ladies’s final, and I can’t bring all of that have and insight.
‘And let’s be honest, what I represent for young girls who wish to be footballers, who wish to be broadcasters, is way greater than what Ian Wright represents.
‘Again, I’m not knocking Ian Wright, it’s not even about him, it might be any man, it’s really vital we regulate the premium opportunities. It’s hard, I don’t wish to go into it because people might write headlines, but the difficulty I even have with Ian is that I feel in his position he must clock what I’m saying.’
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