DISGUSTED Chester women’s football officials yesterday slammed sexist comments made by Sky Sports TV presenters as being “damaging” and belonging to a bygone era.
Former England Women’s international Wendy Owen, now Senior Sports Science Lecturer at the University of Chester, said she was “horrified” by the leaked comments made by Richard Keys and Andy Gray regarding the appearance and ability of female assistant referee Sian Massey during Liverpool’s win over Wolves on Saturday.
Gray has since been sacked and an apologetic Keys has resigned.
“I was horrified. It was a backward step and takes you back to the bygone era of common place sexism in the 1970s,” said the Neston-based academic who helped pioneer the coaching of women’s football in England.
“When we lined up for the first England women’s team in 1972 reporters would ask us to put make up on before we had our picture taken and ask us what our boyfriends made of us playing for England.
“They called us the Dolly Dribblers and said we had started a revolution born out of broken bra straps and muddy knickers.
“I’d hoped we’d moved on.”
Owen, whose passion for the issue has led to her writing Kicking Against Tradition, a book highlighting sexism in football, added: “Massey will have to be better than most of the male referees just to get to that level of competition.”
But the ex-Tranmere youth coach believes that positives can now be drawn from the whole saga, as it has served to shine a light on the prevailing issue of sexism in football.
“Since the incident, the FA have told me that they have been inundated with enquiries from women to become referees,” added Owen who has qualified to coach up to UEFA B licence standard.
“So while the comments from Gray and Keys were clearly vitriolic they could have had the opposite effect! Women are now realising that they can have a great career as a referee in the Premier League.
“It used to be that people thought that because you were a woman that you knew nothing about football and up until 1969 woman were banned from FA pitches.
“The FA has made a huge effort to kick racism out of football so hopefully this incident could be the start of finally rooting out sexism once and for all.”
But Lisa Pritchard, manager of Chester City Ladies FC, says the comments from Keys and Gray were not unexpected and she suggested Massey should receive some compensation.
She said: “They could be very damaging towards that young lady’s career as an official. In football it seems if a woman gets a decision wrong, not only is she scrutinised but women in general.
“I work with 30 girls at Chester Ladies and they all know the offside rule. It is wrong for people to stereotype women in their involvement with football.”
Pritchard has been in the women's game for 18 years which has seen her play for Wrexham, Manchester City and Chester City before she was forced to retire due to a neck injury.
She admitted that it was fair that Keys had apologised for his actions but suggested the issue should be dealt with by FIFA president Sepp Blatter whom she criticised for his recent comments that females should “play the game in mini-skirts”.
She said: “Women are not acknowledged in the game. Participation levels are already low and this is no encouragement to get more girls involved in football.”
Pritchard officiated in both the Chester & District League and the West Cheshire League where she says she didn’t suffer from discrimination.
“I enjoyed the game and obviously referees get moaned at but I never encountered any abuse.” But she added: “This incident is a landmark for women officials in the sport and now any mistakes they make will relate to this incident and people will say Andy Gray was right, it’s unfair.”
