Emma Hayes has dignified response to Joey Barton question after comments about pundits and calling out Laura Woods

Emma Hayes has described conversations about the integrity of women’s football ‘detrimental’ in a dignified response to a question about Joey Barton.

The former Bristol Rovers boss, who was sacked by the League One club in October, caused quite a stir on social media after taking aim at women working within men’s football as pundits and co-commentators.

Barton looked to goad Laura Woods and Bianca Westwood into a debate on his views, with the two hugely successful broadcasters refusing to be drawn into a social media back-and-forth.

The 41-year-old’s comments have sparked debate across both the men’s and the women’s game, with Chelsea boss Emma Hayes questioned on his social media tirade.

But opting to take the high road, the six-time WSL winner opted to discuss the issue of sexism in football without acknowledging Barton’s comments directly.

Hayes said: “The broader issues that need to be addressed, I’m not going to pollute or dilute that conversation by making it about personality or individuals.

“The realities are that male privilege is something that’s always been at the centre of football in this country from when we were banned from playing football up until the 70s.

“I don’t expect any individual personality to understand their privilege, but nonetheless, you only have to see the scores of women across the internet or in the business – whether as a presenter or a coach or a player – to realise that we are routinely used to dealing with systemic misogyny, bullying and behaviour that has been pretty normal for a large part of the football public.

“The reality of it is that I find the debate interesting – and we should have the debate without being personal about it, I’m not referring to any individuals – but I feel that sport is probably the last place in society where that male privilege exists.

“Naturally, if I go all Darwinism on us and speak about evolution theory, the reality is that when there’s an existential threat you either evolve, or you die. It’s one or the other.

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“I think that when it comes to the sport of football in this case, we have to remember that society isn’t always as well represented across the media or across the game in coaching or playing and that if you haven’t experienced systemic misogyny like lots of us have then you can’t for one moment understand how detrimental some of these conversations are knowing that anything anyone says enables an absolute pile on.”