Match of the Day icon questions 'why women are so involved in the men’s game'

Former Match of the Day pundit Mark Lawrenson has questioned an imbalance of females in the men’s game to males in the women’s game. The 66-year-old Liverpool legend left the BBC in 2022 after 30 years working for the broadcaster.

He recently labelled the BBC “top of the woke league”, feeling hard done by and arguing he was let go because he’s a white male. Lawrenson has elaborated further on the comments, calling out what he perceives to be inequality in the industry.

He told Best Online Poker Sites: “If you’re good enough, no matter if you’re male or female, you should be doing the job. It’s just a fact now that everybody believes that if you’re a commentator then you should be commentating week-in, week-out on the Premier League and to a very good standard too.”

Lawreson feels it’s ‌not a two-way street having seen plenty of female ex-pros be employed to cover the Premier League, but not as many males reporting on the Women’s Super League.

He continued: “My only concern about all this is that women can be as involved to a large extent, such as co-commentating, being pundits or hosting, and I think a lot of them are good.

“But I ask, why is it that women are so involved in the men’s game – whether it be punditry or refereeing – but men don’t go into the women’s game? I don’t quite get that – if you want to be diverse across the board then surely that should be on the table.”

‌Lawrenson has repeatedly criticised the culture of the job now compared to when his media career first started back in the 1990s. He feels all it takes is one wrong move and you can be out of a job.

“Women’s football is definitely getting better and so will the punditry, but you could have someone who’s the best commentator in the world and all it takes is for someone to say, ‘I don’t like the sound of his voice, he should be replaced’. It’s the way things are now,” he bemoaned.