Laura Woods hits back at Eni Aluko in row about women’s punditry

Laura Woods has hit back at Eni Aluko’s claims that only female pundits should be allowed to work on women’s football.

Aluko, the former England women’s striker, criticised ITV and the BBC for selecting Ian Wright and Nedum Onuoha for the Euro 2025 final, in which the Lionesses beat Spain.

Aluko was part of ITV’s punditry team for Euro 2025 but did not work on an England game and was not involved in the final.

The 38-year-old claimed during an interview on the 90s Baby Show podcast that women’s football should be reserved for female pundits because there are fewer opportunities for women in men’s football.

Aluko also highlighted the amount of England caps held by herself and Fara Williams, who was also not a pundit for the final.

But Woods, who presents ITV’s coverage of the Lionesses, took apart Aluko’s argument in a thread on social media.

“Caps don’t win automatic work and they don’t make a brilliant pundit either,” Woods wrote on X. “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.”

Aluko hit out at Wright last year, accusing the Arsenal legend of “blocking opportunities” for women and dominating punditry positions in the women’s game.

She later issued an apology on social media, which Wright refused to accept, but Aluko has reignited her argument with her latest podcast appearance.

Aluko said: “Last year, at the Women’s Lionesses final, I’m sat in the stands, I wasn’t on ITV for the final, Fara Williams was sat next to me, Fara Williams has 170 caps [172 caps] for England, something ridiculous, I think she’s the most-capped player, she’s sat in the stands.

“The two broadcasters that had the rights for the game – ITV and BBC – on BBC you’ve got Ellen White, Steph Houghton and Nedum Onuoha, no offence to Nedum Onuoha, nothing against him, I don’t know whether he played for England or not, but you’re on the main panel for the final for England Women.

“Let’s go over to ITV, I’m in the stands with 105 caps, so you’ve got two women, between us we’ve got 290 caps, something ridiculous, you turn over to ITV and it’s Ian Wright, Emma Hayes and Kaz [Karen] Carney.

“So out of six punditry spots, two have gone to men. Meanwhile you’ve got 290 caps, whatever it is, sitting in the stands.

“It’s nothing against Ian, it’s nothing against them, I’m just saying broadly speaking we need to be aware of that because if we’re building a game where the limited opportunities are now being taken by men, where we can’t go into the men’s game and get the same opportunities, we’re stuck.”

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