Nicola Sturgeon supports call for offensive terms to be 'eradicated' after awards ceremony row

Nicola Sturgeon supports call for offensive terms to be 'eradicated' after awards ceremony row
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Tom Evans

By Tom Evans


Published: 12/05/2022

- 18:07

Updated: 14/02/2023

- 11:27

Nicola Sturgeon has waded in on the row that saw a sports broadcaster walk out of an awards ceremony in protest at "unacceptable" comments

Eilidh Barbour left the Scottish Football Writers’ Awards part way through the speech, and later said remarks by the after-dinner speaker Bill Copeland were “degrading” to women.

She also said the speech included “homophobic jibes” and that “offensive racial terms should never be funny”.


Ms Barbour said on Twitter that she had “never felt so unwelcome in the industry I work in than sitting at the Scottish Football Writers Awards”.

The event, she added, was “a huge reminder there is still so much to do in making our game an equal place”.

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon during her visit to open NHS 24's new centre at Hillington, Glasgow as part of the organisations 20th Anniversary celebrations. Picture date: Monday May 9, 2022.
Nicola Sturgeon
Andrew Milligan

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon during her visit to open NHS 24's new centre at Hillington, Glasgow as part of the organisations 20th Anniversary celebrations. Picture date: Monday May 9, 2022.
Nicola Sturgeon
Andrew Milligan

The SFWA later apologised to anyone who was “offended or upset by material from one of our after-dinner speakers” – with the organisation pledging the walkout would be a “catalyst to review and improve the format of our future events”.

Raising the issue at Holyrood during First Minster’s Questions, SNP MSP Joe FitzPatrick – a former sports minister in the Scottish Government – said the event appeared to “be a shocking illustration of the outdated discriminatory attitudes that still exist in football and indeed in journalism that need to be eradicated”.

In response, Ms Sturgeon agreed that what had been said was “unacceptable”, as she stressed the need for men to change their behaviour.

The First Minister paid tribute to Ms Barbour and others at the event “who I think very courageously took a stand and spoke out”.

She added: “It’s not easy for any woman, particularly in a traditionally man’s world, to speak out in that way and I think Eilidh and her colleagues deserve credit for doing so.”

The speech showed “sexism and misogyny still runs too deep in our society and it is a reminder that it must be tackled”, Ms Sturgeon added.

“It is also a reminder that it starts with male behaviour and its male behaviour we must see change.”

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