Sky Sports football pundit Graeme Souness says he has no regrets over his comments that sparked outrage after Sunday's Chelsea v Tottenham match.
Souness was branded "a disgrace" by some viewers after describing football as "a man's game" just weeks after England's women won Euro 2022 in front of nearly 90,000 fans at Wembley. The Liverpool legend was sat next to former Lionesses star and Chelsea Women's captain Karen Carney when making the comments, and she looked visibly uncomfortable. You can read more about what happened here.
Despite the efforts of presenter Dave Jones to rescue the situation by pointing out "it's a woman's game as well", Souness repeated himself when expressing his pleasure to have witnessed a combative affair that reminded him of how football used to be. He said: “I think we’ve got our football back, as I would enjoy football … men at it, blow-for-blow, and the referee letting them get on with it.”
Update: Sky Sports issue Graeme Souness statement after 'man's game' TV furore
Souness appeared on talkSPORT on Monday, and was unrepentant. Asked if he had any regrets about what he said, the 69-year-old replied: “Not a word of it. Let me explain. I’ve been advocating for years that the referees have such a major part to play in the success of the Premier League.
“We’ve got to be careful what we say today and I’ve not been very good at that, but we were becoming like other leagues.
“They were blowing the whistle all the time and it wasn’t a good watch. Our game has always been unique, more meaty, more in your face and more intense and we got away from that.
“My comments yesterday were saying we’ve got our game back. That is the kind of football I remember playing in.
“We’ve got to be better for it. The directive to the referees is long overdue, we’ve got our game back.
“I enjoyed two games of football yesterday where men were playing men and they got about themselves and were falling out with each other.
“Okay, I don’t think we should be condoning the thing on the touchline, but I’ve been there. If you are on the touchline and things aren’t going your way and you feel there’s been an injustice. You’ve worked all week for these 90 minutes.”
Former England women's international Eniola Aluko has publicly slammed Souness for his comments, saying on Twitter: "Graeme Souness talking about ‘it’s a man’s game again’ sat next to an England centurion Karen Carney, two weeks after the Lionesses end a 56 year wait and win European Championships,” she tweeted. “Come on. It’s not okay.”
TalkSPORT host Simon Jordan hit back at Aluko, calling the outrage "ridiculous". He said: “It’s preposterous. I’ve seen some of the blowback. What an absolute load of nonsense. How can a man describing a game featuring men apparently not use the words man or men in conjunction with a game featuring solely men.
“If you want to take anybody’s conversation out of context, misrepresent it and turn it into something it wasn’t, then that’s for you to do.
“It doesn’t mean people should be castigated, it doesn’t mean we need presenters on the show to say ‘it’s a women’s game as well’.
“You don’t need it. I don’t think Graeme is a dinosaur, I don’t think he’s misogynistic, I don’t think there is anything wrong with what he said."
England's Bethany England tweeted: “'It’s a man’s game', 'Men at it' Get in the bin. What a disgraceful thing to say after the summer this country has just seen."
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