Laura Woods tears into Eni Aluko in furious rant as TV war blows up
Laura Woods appears to have responded to Eni Aluko’s latest comments
Laura Woods has posted on social media(Image: Getty Images)
Laura Woods has appeared to have taken aim at Eni Aluko’s comments about her lack of opportunities as a pundit. It follows the presenter’s reaction to Aluko’s recent outburst about her position as a broadcaster.
Former England international Aluko was previously at the centre of a fallout over comments about Ian Wright’s presence within the women’s game. Arsenal legend Wright later refused to accept her apology.
In an appearance on the 90s Baby Show, Aluko discussed the choice of pundits for last year’s Euro 2025 women’s final, where England defeated Spain, noting that two of six pundits across BBC and ITV were male. She said: “In the women’s game the opportunities are even more limited, so the main characters of the show should be the women.
“Men should be part of that. I’m not saying anybody should be excluded, I believe in diversity wholeheartedly, but the same way we’ve played a role in the men’s game that’s a supporting role, you’re part of the ensemble, you’re never going to get the premium final games, it should be the same way for women’s football.
“I think we need to protect the women’s game in the same way the men’s game is protected. What I mean by that is, and you’ve heard me discuss the journey of women’s football, it’s taken a while, it’s taken a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get the women’s game to where it is now.
“There’s a lot of people, including me, who have sown many seeds to be reaping what we’re reaping now… TV, money coming into the game, investment, and it’s still growing. From my perspective, we didn’t go through all of that – blood, sweat and tears – for women to be second place in our own sport. What are we doing? That’s my point, the women’s game should be by women for women.
“Male allies should absolutely support that but when it gets to the point where you’re the main character of the show, we’re just repeating the patriarchal stuff that we’ve been fighting against.”
Laura Woods and Eni Aluko have previously worked together(Image: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
However, ITV and TNT Sports presenter Woods disagreed with Aluko’s view. On Monday, the 38-year-old made her feelings clear in a series of social media posts.
On X, Woods said: “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.”
Ending her thread, Woods said: “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.”
