Sport NI chief adds voice to chorus of condemnation over Kenny Shiels comments about women being more emotional than men

A furore of international proportions engulfed the former Irish League player / manager, who has managed the team since May 2019, after his post-match comments on Tuesday.

Antoinette McKeown, the Sport NI CEO, has become the latest individual to excoriate Mr Shiels, issuing a written statement on Friday saying that “for me, it was not clumsy use of language, this was a candid view, expressed and expanded upon”.

The NI team had lost 5-0 to England in a women’s World Cup qualifier, and Mr Shiels pointed to the fact that some of those goals had come in fairly quick succession: 26 minutes, 52 minutes, 60 minutes, 70 minutes, and 79 minutes.

Just days previously, NI had conceded three goals in the space of nine minutes when they lost 3-1 to Austria.

WHAT DID MR SHIELS ACTUALLY SAY AT THE TUESDAY PRESS CONFERENCE?

In the press conference after the defeat, Mr Shiels said the following (unlike some other media sources, we have quoted a full, verbatim account of his remarks):

“In the women’s game you’ll have noticed – I’m sure you will, if you go through the patterns – when a team concedes a goal, they concede a second one within a very short period of time.

“Right through the whole lot, the whole spectrum of the women’s game, because girls and women are more emotional than men, so they take a goal going in, they, they don’t take that very well.

“So if you watch, you go through the stats – which journalists love to do, going through stats – and you’ll see teams conceding goals in 18 and 21 minutes, and then in 64 and 68 minutes.

“They group them: because that’s an emotional goal.

“So we conceded in 48. We’d three in seven minutes, was it? Or three in nine, on Friday [in 3-1 defeat to Austria] and we were conscious of that.

“When we went 1-0 down, we killed the game and tried to just slow it right down to give them time to get that emotional imbalance out of their head.

“And that’s an issue that we have – not just Northern Ireland – but all countries have that problem.

“I shouldn’t have told you that.”

‘I HAVE EXPERIENCED THE FULL GAMBIT OF A MINDSET THAT ARTICULATES A PRIVATE MEMBERS CLUB FOR MEN’:

Ms McKeown (whose public body is in charge of parcelling out funding to sports across NI) wrote this in response:

“Eleven footballers, who had just turned professional three months before, gave their all as they lined up against the might of the best resources that the Women’s English Premier League could muster on Tuesday.

“Disappointingly, none of this was a topic of conversation after such a historic night of sport in front of a sell-out crowd.

“Instead, a glimpse into a prevailing mindset, eclipsed the fact that this NI Women’s International team is the most successful NI team dominated the headlines that the team had earned.”

She went on to write: “Tellingly, his words reveal a mindset that belongs to a bygone era but is still all too prevalent in sports here today towards women at all levels, in all sports.

“Of course, it is not only present in sport. Comments that feed and fuel worn-out stereotypes of the ‘emotional woman’ still prevail whether it be in business, politics, or many other walks of life.”

Ms McKeown added: “[F]or me one of the most worrying questions that has emerged from this controversy is, ‘If this is how women are regarded at international level, how are they treated at their local club?’

“Statistics show there is still a gap between woman and girls and men and boys on the pitch, on our sidelines and in our boardrooms.”

She concluded: “As a female leader in sport, I have experienced the full gambit of a mindset that articulates a private members club for men where women enter at their invitation and permission, regardless of the position women hold.

“And there is unity among women in sport in their solidarity with, and immense respect for the NI Women’s team.

“It is time for sports to free the voices of female players to express their own opinions and to seek basic equality and necessary improvements.”

APOLOGY AND COMPLAINT OF ‘CHARACTER ASSASSINATION’:

The day after the press conference, Mr Shiels issued the following apology:

“I wish to apologise for my comments made in the post-match press conference last night.

“I am sorry for the offence that they have caused.

“Last night was a special occasion for the women’s game in Northern Ireland and I am proud to manage a group of players who are role models for so many girls, and boys, across the country.

“I am an advocate for the women’s game and passionate about developing opportunities for women and girls to flourish.”

The story has made international news, being covered not just in UK media but by huge American networks including ABC and CNN, and transatlantic sports site ESPN.

Countless commentators lined up to attack Mr Shiels, a 65-year-old veteran of Irish football, who used to play for the likes of HW Welders and Carrick Rangers back in the early ‘90s, before going on to manage (among others) Coleraine, Ballymena, and Derry City.

Angela Platt, Northern Ireland’s director of women’s football, subsequently said: “He meant no offence... and the players and ourselves, as the Irish FA, fully support him.”

And Mr Shiels daughter Lauren Kearney wrote on Twitter: “The abuse and character assassination my dad has endured over the past 24 hours has been shocking! Thank you to those that have shown support it won’t be forgotten.”

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