Former Chelsea and Juventus forward Eni Aluko has opened up about fears for her safety in the last week or so in the wake of a vindictive attack from former Manchester City midfielder Joey Barton.
Barton has recently embarked on a bizarre campaign against female pundits in the men’s game, for some reason taking issue at the great progress that has been made on representation at the highest level of the sport.
Aluko won over 100 England caps in her career and won trophies at home and abroad, so there’s undoubtedly plenty of experience and insight she can offer on media platforms, when it’s also so often been the case that male pundits comment on women’s football.
Aluko has now taken to Instagram to reveal the true extent of Barton’s disgraceful attack on her, saying: “Now, I’m open and honest and I’m human and I’m more than happy to admit: I’ve been scared this week.
“I’ve genuinely been scared this week. I didn’t leave my house until Friday and I’m now abroad. Because it’s really important to say that online abuse has a direct impact on your safety and how you feel and how safe you feel in real life.
“I’ve felt under threat this week. I’ve felt like something is going to happen to me. And I don’t say that for anyone to feel sorry for me – I say that for people to understand the reality and the impact that hate speech has. The impact that racism has. The impact that sexism has. The impact that misogyny has on all of us females in the game [and] in sports broadcasting.
“That’s the real impact – and it’s not an isolated incident, this is now showing up as a culture in the game, from certain fan bases and certain people. They’re creating a culture where people don’t want to go to work, people don’t want to leave their house, people feel under threat. Obviously there’s a big impact on mental health as well.”
She added: “I’ve seen a lot of stuff mentioned this week around freedom of speech and people being entitled to their opinions and the reality is that our freedom of speech isn’t really free.
“Our speech isn’t really free and neither is our opinion, because depending on what you say, there are laws that govern that opinion and that freedom of speech. That’s not something that happened this week – that’s always been the case.
“If you come out and are racist, or sexist or misogynistic and threaten people online, there are laws for that and that govern that behaviour. It’s not free. It’s not freedom of consequences, either. There are consequences for that. And over the past week I’ve taken advice from lawyers and a course of action has now been decided upon.”
Barton has received plenty of criticism for the way he’s behaved recently, and one can only hope he comes to his senses soon and stops this strange obsession with trying to hound female pundits out of the game.