Former Chelsea star branded ‘sexist pig’ over opinions on female football commentators

Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid condemned Jason Cundy for saying he didn’t like ‘pitchy’ female voices commentating football games

For the first time ever, there has been female commentary of world cup games from Vicki Sparks (@vksparks) which is obviously a good thing, right? Well unfortunately there are a few ‘dinosaur dissenters’ as fellow pundit Jacqui Oatley put it.

I’ve been trying to stay out of this as I just want the likes of @vksparks and @robyniocowen to be able to crack on doing a fine job without adding to the scrutiny (which affected my confidence for a while). Still feel we’ve made progress. Dinosaur dissenters are in the minority. https://t.co/SBaz4TjVwh

— Jacqui Oatley (@JacquiOatley) June 25, 2018

One of these is former star Jason Cundy who, appearing on Good Morning Britain, criticised female voices - comments for which he has faced massive criticism.

Former Chelsea footballer Jason Cundy says women’s voices are too ‘high-pitched’ to commentate football matches. pic.twitter.com/yYKH8CL2kR

— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) June 25, 2018

Piers lashes out at him, whilst Susanna asks him to accept that this is just something that people like him will have to get used to.

Ladies let's just stay in our kitchens working on lowering our high pitched voices. DEAR. LORD. https://t.co/kEw1MqXFMB

— Nicole Holliday (@NicoleHolliday) June 25, 2018

For sure, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that means everyone is entitled to their opinion of your opinion, and the backlash for Cundy has been severe...

If Jason Cundy thinks female commentators voices are too high pitched, he's allowed to say that he thinks female commentators voices are too high pitched.

That may come as a shock to a lot of people, but he is allowed an opinion. Like, it's isn't illegal. Yet.

— Gareth Icke 🇵🇸 (@garethicke) June 25, 2018

I want to sincerely apologise for the comments I made on Good Morning Britain. I came away realising just how foolish and out of order they were and how I deserved the backlash I have received
1/3

— Jason Victor Cundy (@jasoncundy05) June 25, 2018

Issues like this often arise when women are involved in football commentary, for example, Patrice Evra has been similarly criticised for patronising Eni Aluko and her analysis of the Serbia v Costa Rica game by looking surprised and clapping. Aluko has 102 England caps and at the peak of her career was dubbed "the Wayne Rooney of women's football."

Hopefully in time this won’t be an issue at all, and the only reaction to a female voice will be more like this...

We have an English feed in our hotel, first time I'd heard Vicky Sparks do a live game last week. My only thought was it was first time I'd heard her, how much better she was than some others and never gave the "female commentator" thing a second thought. Some people so outdated

— John Cross (@johncrossmirror) June 25, 2018