Eni Aluko has once again hit out at Ian Wright for his involvement in women’s football coverage as she criticised the pundit choices at last summer’s Women’s Euro 2025 final.
Ex-England international Aluko caused a stir last year when she claimed that Arsenal legend Wright, a known advocate for the women’s game, was “blocking opportunities” for female pundits.
Aluko offered an apology to Wright, but the 62-year-old – who has previously worked alongside the former Lioness as a pundit – declined to accept it, saying he was “very disappointed” given the support and help he had provided her in the past.
But now speaking on the 90s Baby Podcast, Aluko once again expressed frustration of the coverage of England’s triumphant Euro 2025 final, blasting the fact that four of the six punditry spots on BBC and ITV went to men – one of them being Wright and the other being Nedum Onuoha.
“In the women’s game the opportunities are even more limited, so the main characters of the show should be the women,’ Aluko said.
“Men should be part of that. I’m not saying anybody should be excluded, I believe in diversity wholeheartedly, but the same way we’ve played a role in the men’s game that’s a supporting role, you’re part of the ensemble, you’re never going to get the premium final games, it should be the same way for women’s football.
“I think we need to gatekeep the women’s game in a way that the men’s game is gatekept. What I mean by that is, and you’ve heard me talk about the journey of women’s football, it’s taken a while, it’s taken a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get the women’s game to where it is now. There’s a lot of people, including me, who have planted a lot of seeds to be reaping what we’re reaping now… TV, money coming into the game, investment, and it’s still growing.
“From my perspective, we didn’t go through all of that – blood, sweat and tears – for women to be second place in our own sport. What are we doing?
“That’s my point, the women’s game should be by women for women. Male allies should absolutely support that but when it gets to the point where you’re the main character of the show, we’re just repeating the patriarchal stuff that we’ve been fighting against.
“Now whoever that upsets, that upsets, but that’s the reality. I’ve always been protective about women’s football because I’ve done a lot, I’ve invested a lot, I was doing women’s football when it didn’t pay to do women’s football. Now we’re reaping the rewards I’m like women should be winning right now.
“My point is, I’ve never done a major final in men’s football for eleven years, I’ve done three World Cups, men’s Euros, Champions League, I’ve never had that opportunity, and maybe rightly so, I’d probably say rightly so because again, I think the guys should always be ahead of me, the main guys.
“Last year, at the Women’s Lionesses final, I’m sat in the stands, I wasn’t on ITV for the final, Fara Williams was sat next to me, Fara Williams has 170 caps [172 caps] for England, something ridiculous, I think she’s the most-capped player, she’s sat in the stands.
“The two broadcasters that had the rights for the game – ITV and BBC – on BBC you’ve got Ellen White, Steph Houghton and Nedum Onuoha, no offence to Nedum Onuoha, nothing against him, I don’t know whether he played for England or not, but you’re on the main panel for the final for England Women.
“Let’s go over to ITV, I’m in the stands with 105 caps, so you’ve got two women, between us we’ve got 290 caps, something ridiculous, you turn over to ITV and it’s Ian Wright, Emma Hayes and Kaz Carney.
“So out of six punditry spots, two have gone to men. Meanwhile you’ve got 290 caps, whatever it is, sitting in the stands.
“I’ve just told you I’ve never done a final. I’m probably going to struggle to think of any women, a female pundit, who has done a men’s major final as a pundit. I’m not talking about presenters, people like to conflate the two, it’s a different role, it’s like comparing a forward and a defender, it’s different jobs, I’m talking about as a pundit, it doesn’t happen, so something is not right there because I’m saying this is still quite new where you’re watching women’s finals on TV, why are people like me and Fara not there?
“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.”
Laura Woods responds to Aluko comments
Woods, who has worked alongside both Aluko and Wright, replied to a video shared online and simply wrote, “Wow…”.
When a user commented, “take it you won’t defend her”, the 38-year-old said, “Nope”.