Former Chelsea player says women’s voices are too ‘high pitched’ for commentating
A close-up view shows the official match ball for the 2018 World Cup football tournament (MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty )
Former Chelsea player Jason Cundy has said women’s voices are “too high-pitched” to commentate on football matches.
Cundy made the comments during an appearance on Good Morning Britain with Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid.
Morgan hit out at Cundy for the comments and called him a “sexist pig” adding that his only criteria for a commentator was that they knew what they talked about. Morgan continued to argue with Cundy and told him that his voice was also high-pitched.
(Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty)
Cundy’s comments come after Vicki Sparks made history by becoming the first ever woman to commentate live on a World Cup game.
The BBC journalist appeared alongside co-commentator Martin Keown for Portugal’s game against Morocco last week.
“I prefer to hear a male voice when watching football – for 90 minutes of hearing a high pitched tone isn’t really what I would like to hear – and when there is a moment of drama as there often is in football, that moment actually I think needs to be done with a slightly lower voice,” Cundy said.
“For 90 minutes I would rather prefer to listen to a male voice when I’m watching football.
“I consume a lot of football – to listen to that voice. It’s like, would you rather listen to Ed Sheeran or Celine Dion? We all have a choice.”
Great Morning Britain tweeted a clip of the interview and it attracted some opinionated social media users to respond.
The FIFA World Cup is in Russia for the first time (MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty)
One person whose Twitter name is Stanley Mussgrove (handle @essem_mess) seemed to admit that he falsely accused some women of homophobic comments, because he didn’t want them near him at the Arsenal stadium.
“Country has gone PC mad. Women are annoying when talk about football. Can’t bloody stand it. Had some women near me at the arsenal last season. Done my head in so we complained to stewards claiming they made homophobic comments. Not seen them for a while [sic],” he wrote.
While Paul T (handle @paultinay) added that he agreed with Cundy’s comments. “I have no issue with women footballers, presenters or pundits. If they are good enough then no problem. But I draw the line at commentators because they are too high pitches. It’s really weird but it kind of grates,” he wrote on Twitter.
Other replies were more supportive of women commentators.
Faisal (handle @The_Gunnersbury) wrote: “If any woman knows what she is talking about, has the knowledge about the game, then nothing, absolutely nothing should stop her from commentating. Its as simple as that.”
