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John Terry Responds To Accusations Of 'Sexism' Against Female Football Commentator

John Terry Responds To Accusations Of 'Sexism' Against Female Football Commentator

He says that it's all just a big misunderstanding.

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

Former England Captain John Terry has posted an Instagram response after being accused of sexism, following a post he made where he claimed he had to watch a World Cup game featuring commentary by the BBC's Vicky Sparks 'with no volume'.

The 37-year-old has now released a video explaining that everyone got the wrong end of the stick and his comments were actually completely unrelated to the fact that Sparks was behind the mic, but in fact referred to a breakdown of his home cinema system.

The former England defender and captain posted: "Having to watch this game with no volume."

This was during the Portugal vs Morocco game, and it didn't go unnoticed that Terry had decided to post during a game for which the lead commentator was a woman.

She became the first woman to commentate on a World Cup match on British telly, and by all accounts, she did a good job.

Terry's comments were quickly interpreted as sexist by some on social media, who assumed that he was referring to the fact that he was being forced to listen to a woman instead of one of the BBC's male commentators such as Jonathan Pearce or Guy Mowbray.

Instagram

In the Instagram video, he said: "I just wanted to address an Instagram story that I posted earlier today that I have since deleted.

"I came home from holiday at the Maldives today around two o'clock, to find there's no audio in the house working whatsoever.

"Since then they've been able to fix it, so everything's working again now but I was watching the game with no volume.

"I posted that on my social media and people have run away and kind of made up their own stories and run with it and it's gathered a bit of momentum on social media and also in the newspapers as well.

"Just wanted to clarify that it's completely untrue and simply not the case so I hope that clears up the matter and we can move forward from there."

PA

Terry isn't the first person to have come in for criticism for a reaction to female pundits and commentators on this year's World Cup coverage.

Former Manchester United player Patrice Evra was called 'sexist' and 'patronising' for his reaction to Juventus forward and fellow pundit Eni Aluko on ITV's coverage.

Evra clapped Aluko after she finished making a point, and even said 'she even knows more than us [the male pundits]'.

Not a good look, and he was rightly given stick for it online.

Twitter

Aluko has more than 100 England caps and - while we're at it - speaks a lot of sense.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: sexism, SPORT, UK News, Russia 2018, Celebrity, BBC, Football, England, World Cup, ITV