Joey Barton has been criticised by Laura Woods and others after claiming female presenters aren’t “qualified” to speak about men’s football.

The former manager, who was sacked by Bristol Rovers in October, claimed on social media that women “shouldn’t be talking with any kind of authority in the men’s game”.

“Come on. Let’s be serious,” he said. “It’s a completely different game.

“If you don’t accept that. We will always see things differently. The women’s game is thriving. Fantastic to see. I cannot take a thing they say serious in the men’s arena.”

In more posts, Barton said men who defend presenters are “eunuchs” – men who have been castrated – and would be an “absolute fart parcel”.

The former Manchester City player also said female commentators are “like me talking about knitting or netball”, and added in a separate post: “Out the stadiums and off the concourse’s with the influencer f****** nonsense.”

Barton will face no action from the Football Association for breaking its rules on such comments because he made them while out of work and is deemed outside its jurisdiction.

Laura Woods, who presents on ITV, TalkSPORT and TNT Sports, said: “Throwing young vloggers to the wolves is wrong.

“I started my career vlogging & I’ve always got on with Joey. He also sent me a lovely good luck message for TNT in June. Does that make him a eunuch too?”

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The presenter added in a separate post: “Joey’s entitled to his opinion. If he feels that strongly about women in the men’s game he could ask for a private conversation with the broadcasters and state his case.

“These tweets only encourage a pile on for the women getting on with their jobs. Or was that the intention?”

One user on X responded to Barton and said: “I mean with Alex Scott in particular, other than her degree in Professional Sports Writing and Broadcasting, extensive playing career and lengthy TV experience, what justification could there possibly be for her fronting shows about the men’s game?”

Barton responded to the user saying Scott is not “qualified to talk with any authority about the men’s game in my opinion”.

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