This issue regarding the legitimacy of the women’s league cup draw goes beyond professionalism and reveals a deeper systemic failure.
In recent months, we have seen the fall of Skys Halo, criticism of Spurs not playing the north London derby at the main stadium, and a so-called ‘women’s football influencer’ being caught for Islamophobia and racism.
All of these headlines exert influence on aspiring footballers and general fans. This is creating a message that women’s football is a space that allows this to happen, to give work to people who have put out racist tweets or videos.
What kind of message does that represent?
Women's football fans do not want influencers who clearly know nothing about the sport to announce draws.
To give the game credibility, you have to embody and outwardly present that having an influencer who makes lewd jokes is unthinkable.
The live on TIKTOK was considered unprofessional and had sexual innuendos.
This is deemed ironic, as sources at some of the clubs involved feel the intention to pitch to a younger audience through TikTok and personalities was understandable. Still, if it were intended for a younger audience, the sexual comments would have been even more inappropriate.
This is something a journalist or someone within the sport would have understood completely and would have conducted a professional draw.
At one point, people asked GK Barry, “What do you think of Tottenham?” It is a football chant that the club hates, typically.
WSL football has apologised to Spurs, but you would not let someone practise medicine without proper training or qualifications, so why let someone who knows nothing about the topic do a competitive draw?
She also asked what colour Liverpool played in and took a ball out of the bag, then put it back in. The fact that she pulled a ball out and then put it back in the bag could provide grounds for the draw to be invalid.\
While this is not a complete criticism of GK Barry, she was most likely not the right personality for this opportunity, and the WSL must take account of this error. However, she should be held accountable for the senseless comments.
At one stage, she got confused about what it meant when clubs play home or away. Clearly, either she didn't get briefed, didn’t read the brief, or thought it was ironic and funny to act confused; either way, it was a little distasteful.
Why are companies out to destroy any credibility women’s football has with mistakes like this? Giving platforms to those who don’t know the game or aren't sending the right message to fans is only going to push development back and give those who believe women shouldn't be in sports more ammunition.
The adjudicator present confirmed that the ball put back in the bag was the same ball GK Barry then pulled out. If it hadn’t been, the draw would have been stopped and restarted.
WSL footballs aid the draw would have been restarted if it were not the same ball.
WSL Football told BBC Sport that, because the draw featured ads and was broadcast live on TikTok, it is not available to watch on its YouTube channel.
Ultimately, companies and organisations need a new marketing and PR team, as they are clearly not meeting their audience's expectations. As a football fan, I do not want a social media influencer announcing the draw, even if they know the game.
Sky Sports News understands learnings from the draw will be introduced in the future.
But given that the WSL is a large corporation and the new owners are supposed to have experience, especially in women’s sport, all they keep doing is failing since they took over, and they've reduced and diminished the league's reputation as a professional league .
While I cannot say for sure that this would not have happened under the FAs' ruling, I can say they definitely would not have got an influencer to perform the draw.
It's also understood that no other club has approached the WSL regarding concerns over the draw as things stand.
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