Des linam has shared his opinions on female pundits taking part in coverage and providing analysis on senior men's football the topic hit headlines in 2024 following a public war of words between former footballer Joey Barton and women's footballer turn pundit ini aluco former Man City midfielder Barton criticized Alo on social media for her punditry as well as other female figures lending their expertise and coverage of men's football his outbursts led to to further abuse being aimed at Alo and left the former England International to feel genuinely scared and even temporarily flee the country Barton's remarks also prompted former prime minister Rishi sunik to publicly address the furor and branded the debate completely ridiculous 81-year-old lenam has now wited into the debate siding with the argument that pundits have to have played it at the level you were talking about linam said I've got no gripe with female presenters but when you're a pundit and you're offering opinions about the game you have to have played it at the level you are talking about e the men's game the former gram standand star left a lengthy pause in the interview with radio times before kave adding in my view linam fronted the BBC's football coverage on Match of the day for over a decade between 1988 and 1999 before making the switch to ITV at ITV linam similarly spent 5 years presenting the channel football coverage while back at the be Gary loner took over motd presenting duties linam touched upon as BBC exit elsewhere in the interview with the publication admitting he should have taken more time to contemplate his departure from the beb they the BBC were overworking me at the time I was doing everything which was very complimentary but also wearing he said ITV came in and offered much less work and extraordinary money which I couldn't fuse with hindsight I should have thought about it a bit longer I miss doing match of the day it belongs there at the BBC if they ever get rid of it or can't afford it they're finished this year marks 25 years since loner took over from linam and recently retained his spot as the corporation's highest paid presenter