Former England goalkeeper Peter Shilton OBE has come to the defence of football legend Kevin Keegan, after the former England manager received widespread backlash for his comments on female pundits.
Keegan told the audience of his ‘An Evening With Kevin Keegan OBE’ show in Bristol that he "wasn't keen" on women pundits discussing the men's game.
Keegan told the crowd in Bristol: "I’m not as keen, I’ve got to be honest, and it may not be a view shared".
He added that he "has a problem" with female pundits talking about the England men’s team because it is "not the same experience".
Peter Shilton defended comments made by Kevin Keegan on female pundits
GB News
Joined by former England women's captain, Faye White, the pair debated the comments and the growing success of women's football on the main stage.
GB News presenter Patrick Christys asked Shilton: "Is there something to be said for the idea that men's football is like a place for men in society, can we just have that or not?"
Shilton said: "No of course not Patrick, I think you know this day and age with equal opportunities in many things you know women and men come together so much.
"I've always been a big supporter of the women's football, especially the last five or six years. Jill Scott when she broke her caps record, the EUROs and the World Cup, women's football has improved dramatically."
Shilton then said of the comments made by Keegan: “I personally can see what Kevin was getting at. I think it's been taken out of context. I mean he’s been described as a dinosaur. He was managing Man City in 2005, so you know it's not that long ago. He's a man of big experience and managed England.
"And I think basically what he's actually saying, would women play against men in the men's game? No, they won't because of obvious other things.
"And you know, should a woman who's probably been at the top of her career in the last four or five years in the women's game, be put in front of maybe somebody that's got 15 year’s experience of top class international football?”
Patrick then asked White for her thoughts on women's punditry, and the "tokenism" of having women on the panel to "make it look better".
Kevin Keegan said he "had a problem" with women pundits in the men's game
PA
White said: "I think in the past certainly, but I think now we've got top female players who have gone on and won a European Championship, and for the last 10 years we've been getting to latter stages of major tournaments. I think it's just the general problem in society that women's football is very much competing like always against the men. It's always looked at, it's been kept down, downgraded.
"But I think that happens more for female sports whereas the likes of athletics, tennis these kind of comments, you know, just don't seem to cross over or happen. You've got Navratilova, Billie-Jean King who would be commenting on the men's tennis games and that never gets questioned, or Paula Radcliffe commentating on a London men's marathon race and that never gets commented.
White continued: "So it's just this thing around football and obviously it's male dominated for history and for time and the women's game, it's been going on for a lot longer than just the last few years you know. But that's what everyone in the general public sees because now it's captured in the media.
"And so yes, we're playing a lot of catch up and then it's still about forming and changing people’s perceptions. I mean my whole career it was based about getting the right to play and change that perception of it, it's just not suitable for women.
"And then getting it out in the mainstream, getting more young girls playing etcetera, obviously it's a barrier when women are trying to commentate and be a pundit."
