British sports minister to take action against Joey Barton for comments

Sports minister Stuart Andrew admits he will take up Joey Barton’s social media comments on X with the respective platform as he condemned his “dangerous” remarks directed at female football commentators.

The former Premier League midfielder has embarrassingly been aiming at females who give their opinion on the men’s game in recent months as the 41-year-old believes they have no place in it.

Most of Barton’s opinions have been shared on X (formerly Twitter) but the former footballer has expressed his views on other platforms such as Piers Morgan Uncensored.

The 41-year-old has had a go at Mary Earps, ITV pundits Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward, and other females within the football media space.

Sports minister Stuart Andrew has been asked by Labour MP and Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee member Julie Elliott whether he would condemn the comments of Barton in recent weeks, and he said: “Yes I would. These are comments that open the floodgates for abuse and that’s not acceptable.

“I’m always wary in these situations that these sort of people want the oxygen and I don’t want to fuel that. I want to put on record my thanks for the amazing contribution that women and girls make to football and sport more generally.” Andrew also said he would “happily” take up Barton’s comments with the social media platforms.

This is a story that will likely develop further over the coming weeks as Barton doesn’t seem to be slowing down when it comes to his views.