Welcome to Moving the Goalposts, the Guardian’s free women’s football newsletter. Here’s an extract from this week’s edition. To receive the full version once a week, just pop your email in below:
Over the past few decades, the role of pundits on TV and across the airwaves has become an art form. Former players are booked daily to sit on panels and as co-commentators to provide expertise and opinion that builds context for the viewer.
Traditionally it has been a male-dominated sector but that is changing. Alex Scott, Sue Smith and Rachel Brown-Finnis are just some of the people we are accustomed to seeing and hearing every day. This has grown in tandem with the increased visibility of the women’s game, now occupying regular broadcasting slots across the week.
When Jenna Schillaci retired in 2020, she was unsure of what lay ahead. After a conversation with her agent, the former Tottenham captain was offered an opportunity to co-commentate on a Champions League match and she threw herself in. Now regularly booked on both sides of the sport, she sees her role clearly: “You’re there because you’re the ex-professional; you’re the person that sees things that maybe the commentator wouldn’t see.”
“There is now a career beyond your playing career,” she continues. “The more women there are on TV, commentating, and in these jobs where we’re used to seeing men, I think it’s inspirational and motivating for those who may be coming towards the end of their [football] career.”
One player keeping an eye on life away from the pitch is Manchester United’s Aoife Mannion. She has many playing years left but, after suffering a second ACL injury in March, she took up several punditry opportunities that have opened her eyes to what is required. “[A key element is] first the content,” she says. “It’s the content that you want to share and the agenda that you want to serve. I have to be aware that I play the role of a current player and with that comes certain expectations … [Secondly] and what I think is probably the most difficult part, is the delivery of what you’re saying – little things to make it easier for the listener to listen to.
“My way into different sports has been through the commentators and pundits. As a footballer I’ve always had an interest in football so, for me, the pundit doesn’t necessarily need to bring it alive because I naturally like it. But for sports that I’m only just getting into, it’s everything that goes around it that brings it to life and adds a story to it.”
One thing we are yet to really see from pundits in the women’s game is the clickbait-driven criticism that passes from the mainstream to social media. Female pundits and analysts have naturally become more critical but perhaps more constructively so than some of their male counterparts. For Mannion this is because it is still being a relatively new field of expertise. “I think partly it’s because we don’t have enough [older] ex-female players that are working in the game,” she says.
“So, our pundits [now] are probably still a bit too close to really separate themselves from the players. And secondly, I don’t know if it’s desirable. Obviously, I take the agenda of the player. I see what those comments can do to people’s wellbeing, so I don’t know if that is the most desirable way to commentate and be a pundit on a football match.”
Schillaci agrees, putting honesty at the heart of her analysis. “The women’s game is a special game, and it has been special because it doesn’t replicate the toxicity of the men’s,” she says. “For me, you can only be honest. I feel like the players are now in a better place to deal with the criticism. As the game gets more and more professional, that’s part and parcel of it.”
Balance is needed. As with the sport itself, the coverage of the women’s game has the chance to shape itself in the way it wants to be. Broadcasters have made a huge step forward towards equality, both in the production around the sport and the jobs they have created. It does not mean that the bad elements have to automatically come along with it. Whether it can hold them off, however, is a different question.
Recommended viewing
This has quite possibly been the toughest week when picking a goal. The WSL featured 25 goals on Sunday, many of the highest quality. My decision though goes with this 92nd-minute screamer from Reading’s Rachel Rowe that saw them snatch victory from the claws of defeat against Leicester. Close behind, however, is this equally brilliant late winner from Birmingham City’s Lucy Quinn that earned her side a valuable three points against Sheffield United in the Championship.
A screamer in the dying seconds to get @ReadingFCWomen's first points of the #BarclaysWSL season 🤩
— Barclays Women's Super League (@BarclaysWSL) October 31, 2022
What a moment for @RachelRowe1323 👏 pic.twitter.com/ipbwwlhnHR
Got a question for our writers – or want to suggest a topic to cover? Get in touch by emailing moving.goalposts@theguardian.com or posting BTL.
