Joey Barton told off by Rovers after posting Blackburn video
Blackburn #Blackburn
The Historic Vids account on X posted a video showing school children from Blackburn in 1905. The account has 4.1 million followers the video was viewed more than 5 million times.
Joey Barton appears to have a launched a one-man crusade against corporations aiming to improve to improve diversity in their ranks by sacrificing more qualified professionals.
He posted: “120 years ago in Blackburn, England. We talk about Diversity, Equality and Inclusion. We never talk about Equity.
“Who has done the work. Who has built the places. Who fought in the wars. Who paid the taxes. Who built and maintained these communities. We shouldn’t forgot our past. As we look to improve our future.”
The official Rovers account responded by saying: “Hi Joey, if you could have your public meltdown without bringing our town into it, that’d be great. Thanks.”
The former Manchester City player has clashed with a number of people on social media in recent months, none more so than over his comments on women in football punditry.
Barton has previously compared ITV broadcasters Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward to serial killers Fred and Rose West and said “women shouldn’t be talking with any kind of authority in the men’s game”.
Sports minister Stuart Andrew condemned Barton’s “dangerous” comments and said he will take the issue up with social media platforms.
“These are comments that open the floodgates for abuse and that’s not acceptable,” he told Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport select committee last week.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Barton responded by calling the minister a “c***” and saying: “We pay your wages.”
Following his remarks about Aluko and Ward, ITV Sport said in a statement: “For Joey Barton, an ex-professional player with a significant social media presence, to target two of our pundits, Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward, with such vindictive remarks based on gender and to invoke the names of serial killers in doing so is clearly contemptible and shameful on his part.
“Football is for everyone.”