It would be easy to presume that life is straightforward for Jill Scott these days. The former England midfielder hung up her boots last year with a Euro 2022 winner’s medal in her pocket, and a few months later was voted queen of the jungle on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here.
Scott’s distinguished playing career culminated in a wave of public affection after England’s first major tournament victory since 1966. But even now, as a highly decorated and widely celebrated former player, life in the public eye has its challenges.
Some of Scott’s recent experiences are a reminder of how much remains to be done before sexist discrimination is eradicated from football and wider society. Hard to believe, perhaps, but the 36-year‑old former Manchester City player came close to turning down media work last season owing to the level of abuse routinely directed at her on social media.
“I was asked to do the Italy v England game [the men’s Euro 2024 qualifier in March] and I dwelled on it for about five days,” Scott says. “I was thinking: ‘I’m going to get so much abuse before I’ve even put that microphone to my mouth.’
“But it was one of the best days of my life. Working with Steven Gerrard, who I’ve looked up to, as a midfielder, for years … Harry Kane broke the [goalscoring] record, and I got to interview him. I had such a great day, and I was so close to saying no.”
Scott is sitting alongside Gary Neville, the former Manchester United and England full-back, now a prominent pundit after his trophy-laden career on the pitch. Neville won everything at club level playing under Sir Alex Ferguson, although the closest he came to a major international trophy was England’s Euro 96 semi-final defeat by Germany.
Neville and Scott have teamed up to take part in The Social Swap, a Heineken campaign to highlight the issue of gender bias on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In April, they swapped accounts for five days, continuing to share opinions on football as they normally would. Unbeknown to Twitter users, for that short time, a message directed at Neville was in fact to Scott, and vice versa. The results were as illuminating as they were worrying and Neville, like Scott, was in disbelief at the level of ignorance on show.
“I’ve seen some of the replies that have come into Jill, which were my tweets,” Neville says. “‘Get back in the kitchen’, ‘Stick to the game you know, love’, that type of condescending, ignorant tweet … there’s no doubt that in football, women who have an opinion on men’s football basically get told to go back in their box.”
The issue of equality for women’s sport has been close to Neville’s heart since childhood. “When I go back to my life with my family – my mum got banned from playing football for the boys’ team in the 70s,” Neville says. “It made the local newspaper because the FA banned her from playing football.”
With two daughters, aged 13 and 14 and who are keen football fans, Neville is all the more focused on striving for equality. Not just when it comes to playing football, but simply women talking about the game that some, judging by the frequently warped environment of social media, regard as an exclusively male pursuit. Heineken, as part of its campaign, has partnered with Arwen, an AI-powered online moderation tool that allows users to filter negativity from their social media feeds.
“They watch Salford and Manchester United every single week with me,” Neville says of his daughters. “My youngest probably knows more about the Salford/United players than I do. The idea they can’t have an opinion on football without having their gender referred to is ridiculous.”
Does Scott believe the Lionesses’ triumph has changed perceptions and the situation for women in football is improving? “I think there has been a big change,” she says. “But we had to go out and do the unthinkable just to get a bit of respect for women’s football. Fortunately enough we did do it [win the Euros]. But I think this campaign highlights that there’s still a lot of trolls out there.”
Neville points out that messages on social media may be the tip of the iceberg in terms of overall attitudes. “I think the worry is the silent majority that don’t tweet, if that attitude is embedded within society,” he says. “We definitely do need to make sure we continue to keep challenging, and talking about it. Because the reality is it does need to be an attitude that’s lost for ever. I think we’ve got an opportunity with young people to change those sort of generational attitudes.”
Scott, asked for an example of sexism experienced early in her footballing life, recalls a painful story, albeit one that now comes with a hint of revenge. “I don’t want to tell a sob story, but I remember my first day at senior school, which is daunting anyway,” Scott says. “A lot of people knew I played football. One boy said: ‘You can’t play football, you’re a girl.’ And I stuck up for myself, and chased after him. He tripped me up and I ended up in hospital with a fractured elbow. When I look back at stuff like that, that was just because I played football. I saw him in the pub recently and he came to say well done on winning the Euros … I nearly broke his elbow.”
Scott and Neville both laugh, but the underlying point is serious. “It’s moments like that where I think it has been tough and, without knowing it, from a young age I started building resilience against that,” Scott says. “Sometimes with resilience we then think we just have to take things and take comments. But I think now if girls go to school and a boy says: ‘Women’s football is crap,’ they’ll be like: ‘Well, we did win the Euros.’ They’ve got a bit of fighting talk behind them.”
In the battle for equality, the positive example set by high-profile former male players such as Neville is significant. With trailblazers such as Scott also continuing to clear a path for aspiring female players – not to mention pundits and commentators – things are moving in the right direction.
Recalling the invitation to cover the England match in Naples that she so nearly turned down, Scott says: “I want young girls to think: ‘Yeah, it’s OK to do that,’ and it’s the norm. It’s definitely about the next generation not going through those anxious moments.”
