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Is this what Eni Aluko envisioned? Did she think reigniting the somewhat one-sided row between herself and fellow pundit Ian Wright would resurrect her broadcasting career or make Wright reflect differently on the incident that she triggered 10 months ago? If so, the exercise has failed and we sit staring at an overwhelmingly sad and depressing episode that is showing no sign of quieting down.
No one credible would dispute Aluko’s record as a player. Her 105 caps and 33 goals for England, involvement in five major international tournaments, four FA Cup wins, three WSL titles and Serie A and Coppa Italia medals speak for themselves.
Ditto her record as a fighter against racism and sexism and for equality, having played a role in the improvement of the central contracts England players benefited from for many years. She challenged the actions of Mark Sampson and the Football Association’s handling of allegations of racism against the former England manager (the claims were later dismissed), and, more recently, saw Joey Barton receive a suspended prison sentence for sending grossly offensive messages to her, fellow pundit Lucy Ward and broadcaster Jeremy Vine.
It is important to acknowledge her role in punditry too, with Aluko among the vanguard of former women’s players going into broadcasting. In 2014 she was the first woman to appear as a pundit on Match of the Day.
Aluko is clearly hugely frustrated at having slipped down the punditry pecking order and has highlighted her 11 years in broadcasting as evidence of her quality. Most recently, in one of two interviews with the 90s Baby Show podcast, she targeted the inclusion of Wright and Nedum Onuoha among a six-strong punditry team covering the 2025 Women’s Euros final across the BBC and ITV, while she and her former England teammate Fara Williams were in the stands.
That, she said, was an example of opportunities in the industry being taken by men. She also accused Wright of failing to champion her in the way he had when allying with Gary Lineker when he was taken off air by the BBC for criticising the government’s asylum policy.
Aluko then compounded the problem by appearing on TalkSport alongside Simon Jordan, because the former Crystal Palace chairman was never going to agree and she was never going to win. And no one should have to put up with the way he spoke about her.
Her interventions this week were a doubling down on personalisation of the same criticism she made in April last year on Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4 when she accused Wright of hogging broadcast opportunities in women’s football and “blocking” the pathway for women. “He’s aware of just how much he’s doing in the women’s game,” she said then. “I think he should be aware of that. We need to be conscious, and we need to make sure that women are not being blocked from having a pathway into broadcasting in the women’s game.”
Aluko apologised to Wright after being widely criticised. Wright did not accept the apology. This week on Wright and Onuoha, she said: “Out of six punditry spots, two have gone to men. Meanwhile, you’ve got 290 caps [277 caps between Aluko and Williams], whatever it is, sitting in the stands. It’s nothing against Ian, it’s nothing against them, I’m just saying broadly speaking we need to be aware of that because if we’re building a game where the limited opportunities are now being taken by men, where we can’t go into the men’s game and get the same opportunities, we’re stuck.”
At points Aluko’s comments are wild, such as the suggestion that the number of caps gives a measure for the quality of the pundit, but there are seeds of good points. Before her comment about Wright in April, she said: “If we had a situation where there was an equal opportunity in the men’s game for broadcasters and coaches that there is in the women’s game, it’s a free-for-all. But that’s not the case. I can’t dominate the men’s game in the way that you used Ian as an example.”
This is a valid comment that highlights the lack of opportunities for female pundits in the men’s game, with few trusted to give their views on the biggest domestic or international fixtures. Whether you agree that one solution could be to prioritise women in the coverage of the women’s game doesn’t really matter; it spotlights the lack of trust broadcasters have in some of their best female talent when it comes to coverage of the men’s game at the highest level.
It is important when discussing Aluko’s comments that we do not sugarcoat the state of representation across sports broadcasting, or the sports media landscape more widely. The industry is woefully lacking diversity-wise and far from free of racism and sexism, whether overt, more subtle or micro-aggressions. This needs to be questioned and challenged. Aluko is among those who have drawn attention to these problems time and again.
However, many believe Aluko has fallen out of favour because pundits who have emerged since she started are far better and have progressed faster and further. Female pundits who are excelling across the women’s and men’s game, such as Izzy Christiansen, Anita Asante, Karen Carney, Alex Scott, Emma Hayes and Lucy Ward, are proving that broadcasters will put women on air, even if there are still valid arguments about them not all being given higher-profile games.
This does not mean it is OK for trolls online to share clips of errors Aluko has made on air, or to abuse her. Any presenter, pundit or commentator makes embarrassing errors and they are not a true reflection of an individual’s quality. The rounding on Aluko since she first spoke about Wright has been inappropriate, borderline racist at times and vicious. Some people will never believe she or any woman should have a role in coverage of the men’s game.
But her views come across as self-serving rather than aimed at progressing opportunities for women, and that is empowering the most chauvinistic commentators and the anti-DEI brigade.
Wright doesn’t have to champion Aluko and shouldn’t be expected to. There is a big danger in the idea that the success or rise of any woman is good for all women, and the same can be said for Black and ethnic minority groups and other minority groups. In all walks of life this idea is increasingly perpetuated. For example, what matters more, that the minister for women and equalities is a woman, regardless of their politics, or that the minister for women and equalities is politically and ideologically engaged with, and committed to, tackling the issues affecting women?
Wright stuck up for Lineker probably primarily because he was against the BBC’s handling of the situation and disagrees with restrictions on what public figures associated with the BBC can and can’t say online, and also possibly because he agreed with the premise of Lineker’s posts.
There is no onus on him or anyone else to back someone because of their gender or skin colour. If Wright doesn’t believe Aluko is a good pundit, if he doesn’t want to align himself with someone who handles themselves in the manner Aluko has of late, or if he doesn’t agree with her worldviews, that is OK.
Wright is one of the most beloved and genuine of women’s football fans and allies, who has time and again shown that his passion for the women’s game is authentic and deep, and targeting him is another massive own goal from Aluko, who is eroding all the good of her legacy.
