Laura Woods Hits Out At Eni Aluko For ‘Dragging Women’s Punditry Backwards’

Laura Woods has hit out at Eni Aluko after the former England forward went on another insane rant about who should and shouldn’t be covering women’s football.

In a podcast appearance the other day, Aluko ripped into the BBC and ITV for including male pundits in the coverage of the Lionesses’ Euro 2025 final with Spain, and even managed to throw Ian Wright – the nicest guy in football – under the bus again.

At one point, she said: ‘Let’s be honest, what I represent for young girls who want to be footballers, who want to be broadcasters, is way more than what Ian Wright represents.’

Ian Wright is probably too much of a gent to hit out at Aluko publicly, but Laura Woods took the opportunity when addressing the situation on X.

She wrote: ‘Caps don’t win automatic work and they don’t make a brilliant pundit either. The way you communicate, articulate yourself, do your research, inform your audience, how likeable you are and the chemistry you have with your panel are what makes a brilliant pundit.

‘”The women’s game should be by women for women,” is one of the most damaging phrases I’ve heard. It will not only drag women’s sport backwards, it will drag women’s punditry in all forms of the game backwards.

‘If you want to grow something, you don’t gate keep it. We want to encourage little boys and men to watch women’s football too, not just little girls and women. And when they see someone like Ian Wright taking it as seriously as he does – they follow suit. That’s how you grow a sport.

‘Here’s a picture of our team at ITV. We won best production at the Broadcast Sport Awards 2025 for our coverage of the women’s euros. Seb Hutchinson won best commentator too. So I think ITV got it just right.’

Absolutely spot on by Laura Woods, but you just know it’s not going to compute with Eni Aluko, who will probably see it as a personal attack against her.

If you’re a good pundit, then you’re a good pundit – regardless of gender. The way Eni Aluko goes on is just pure self-entitlement. Being a female footballer does not guarantee you work as a pundit, especially over someone like Ian Wright who has championed the women’s game for years, and who is also a national treasure. People actually like the guy!

So yeah, Aluko may want to issue another apology to Ian Wright. Although given how it went last time – she probably won’t bother.