What was Kevin Keegan, the former England and Newcastle manager, thinking when he decided to share his views on ‘lady footballers’ and female pundits talking about the England men’s team? Keegan made the remarks to an audience of about 250 people who had bought tickets to An Evening with Kevin Keegan OBE, an event held in Bristol.
‘I’m not as keen, I’ve got to be honest,’ he said, ‘and it may not be a view shared. I don’t like to listen to ladies talking about the England men’s team at the match because I don’t think it’s the same experience. I have a problem with that.’
His remarks even drew some applause, and he went on:
‘But if I see an England lady footballer saying about England against Scotland at Wembley and she’s saying, ‘If I would have been in that position I would have done this,’ I don’t think it’s quite the same. I don’t think it crosses over that much.’
Predictably enough, all hell broke loose, with people on social media labelling him a sexist dinosaur and misogynist. All because he dared to voice his personal opinion.
‘A lot of the pundits now talk too much. Don’t keep talking, talking, talking,’ he said
There’s no doubt that if Keegan had a job to lose he would have lost it by now. That is how easy it is for someone’s reputation and achievements to be destroyed. No one has to agree with Keegan and few will – but what’s the point of a public event if the main speaker isn’t actually going to share his views with the audience? In fact, Keegan went on to explain that he was fully behind the development of women’s football. He even praised some ‘very, very good lady presenters,’ such as Gabby Logan. Yes, some of his language belongs to a different era, as do his views on women’s football, but it is rather patronising to suggest that women might be put off playing the game or from taking up careers as pundits because of what he thinks or says. Many won’t even know who he is. For his troubles, Keegan has been told to ‘keep his opinions to himself’ by the organisation Women In Football, which might make his future Q&As somewhat less interesting.
What is rather remarkable is that Keegan — the product of a different footballing era altogether when footballers were not surrounded by so many minders and publicity agents — has clumsily spoken his mind about a game he has played at the highest levels. He is guilty of naivety and foolishness in speaking openly in an age when everything to do with sport — football most of all — is highly sanitised.
The furore over his remarks overshadowed some other interesting observations Keegan made about the quality — or lack of it — in football punditry. Keegan has previously worked as a TV pundit but said that his time has come and gone — and he is not a fan of the new breed of talking heads on football coverage.
‘A lot of the pundits now talk too much. Don’t keep talking, talking, talking,’ he said. He is right, of course, but don’t expect anyone in football, least of all the broadcasters, to acknowledge it.
Panels involving pundits are a veritable array of box-ticking in terms of ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusivity’, which must come before everything else. Where Keegan is wrong is to pick on female pundits. They are no better or worse than the men: it is all much of a muchness, an endless parade of footballing cliches, saying almost nothing in terms of real insight or analysis. Hardly any of the pundits who go from studio to studio have anything genuinely original to say about the game itself. Most merely repeat what a fellow pundit has said and, I am sorry to say, some can barely string a sentence together.
The broadcasters have become more and more reliant on a stream of ex-players, the Nevilles, Carraghers and Shearers of this world, talking up their mates in the game. At its most elemental football punditry consists of a string of former footballers earning a good living spouting platitudes in TV studios. There is much better and detailed analysis of games and tactics available on a host of websites and YouTube. The mystery is why broadcasters think viewers are happy to put up with it. It won’t be lost on most fans that there is more insight to be gained in a conversation between supporters in the local pub and certainly more honesty about the match they’ve just watched.
Kevin Keegan is wrong about women in football but he is right about the dire state of punditry. No wonder he doesn’t bother watching much football on TV.
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