Eni Aluko calls British TV a ‘poisonous house’ as she QUITS broadcasting work after row with Ian Wright and conflict with Simon Jordan

Eni Aluko has labelled British television a ‘very toxic space’ and revealed she is stepping away from TV work in the wake of her public rows with Ian Wright over sexism and race issues.

Aluko, the ex-Lioness turned pundit, has hit the headlines again after doubling down on her view that male pundits are blocking opportunities in the women’s game – comments that first sparked a spat with Wright.

Despite apologising for her initial statements last April, Aluko reignited her war of words with the Arsenal legend and took aim at former Premier League footballer Nedum Onuoha on the 90s Baby Show podcast. 

The 38-year-old appeared to take issue with Wright and Onuoha being two of the six pundits across ITV and the BBC during the Women’s Euros final last summer, while she and fellow Lionesses legend Fara Williams were not involved.

She also later claimed Wright didn’t fight her corner when ITV decided not to extend her contract as a pundit in what she described as ‘the most difficult time in my career’.

Aluko then appeared on talkSPORT on Tuesday afternoon and, at the end of a controversial appearance on the show with Jim White and Simon Jordan, claimed she is stopping her work in broadcasting in Britain altogether.

‘I think in the UK… it’s a very toxic space for me. And I’m fighting now to just even have an opinion,’ she explained.

‘There is a feeling that I can’t say anything without the instant backlash that comes with the fact people have already decided they don’t like you.’

She added: ‘I’m a fighter, I’m a resilient person and I go “no, I want to say my opinion” but I don’t feel welcome. That was my point. I don’t have skin in the game anymore, I’m not trying to get people out of the way so I can get in.’

‘You’ve got to recognise the environments you can thrive and really do your thing. I just don’t feel (that in) the UK at this moment in time. You never know what will happen in the future, but I’ll always be passionate about women’s football.’

Aluko has a handful of work projects abroad, including working as an ambassador for adidas and UNICEF as well as public speaking engagements.

Her appearance on talkSPORT was noticeably tense in her exchanges with Jordan, who suggested that the former Lioness was an unlikeable pundit.

‘As far as expertise is concerned, when I listen to her as a pundit in the times that I’ve listened to her, I don’t think that she’s particularly enlightening or illuminating or engaging or charismatic, or sometimes comes across particularly likable,’ Jordan said.  

He later added: ‘The language that you use, Eni, is to me steeped in a sense of entitlement. I mean, the sheer weight of the entitlement that you seem to believe that you have would re-sink the Titanic. 

‘I think you’ve been quite fortuitous. I think because of initiatives like DEI, they’ve allowed people to be put into positions in the men’s game that I don’t think they’ve merited and now that sort of seeds an attitude that you become a stalwart in the women’s game. 

‘And I listened to your observations about Ian, and Ian Wright is in the Ian Wright business…. Ian is not in any shape or form obligated to provide any support structure for you or to give you a sense of entitlement. And your position now as a broadcaster will be determined by the value of you. 

‘And the fact that people potentially aren’t booking you now should give you pause for thought about why they might not be.’

Aluko then responded to tell Jordan that she had taken a step back from broadcasting, rebutting his suggestions that she was no longer being hired.

‘The reason people aren’t booking me is because I’ve taken myself out the firing line,’ Aluko told him.

‘My last conversation with ITV was, I’m taking a break from broadcasting. That was after the comments about Ian Wright. We had a conversation. At that point, I’d already decided, I’m taking a break from this environment. This is no longer something that I think is serving.’

Aluko said on part two of the 90s Baby Show podcast that Wright had failed to be her ‘ally’. 

 ‘ITV, at the end of the men’s Euros, came to me and said we can’t extend your contract,’ Aluko said. 

‘I met with Ian’s agent, I had a face-to-face coffee with him. I met with him and said: “Listen, this is the situation, I can’t believe this is happening.” I said: “They’ve told me that Ian is the priority, they’ve told me that his contract is the priority for them, and they’ve also said to me when Ian is not available, you might get a call-up.”

‘So I said “how can we work together so I can stay in the game? How can we work together when Ian is not available, you give me a call or what can we do?”

‘This is what I think black people should do, at the highest levels we need to strategise, we need to really help each other. We can get sidelined very quickly. I went to him and I was vulnerable, I said: “Listen, I need your help, I need Ian’s influence.”

‘I had that meeting with his agent, a month went by and I was like “what’s going on?” so I messaged him and said: “Did you manage to have a chat with ITV?” He was very dismissive, didn’t really want to help me, was a bit like: “Listen, it’s not going to work.” I fully expected Ian to use his influence to keep me in the game. I’ve seen him do it with others, he did it with Gary Lineker at the BBC.

‘There’s nothing that would make me think he wouldn’t do that for me, because you’re the ally, you’re “Uncle”. So the question to you is, why didn’t he do that for me? I say all this to say, you don’t want to help me, you don’t want to use your influence, you don’t want to be an ally for me in the most difficult time in my career and that’s fine, that’s cool.

‘But nine months later, when I’ve been off screen and I’ve seen that you’re doing the games and you’ve cracked on, the fact of the matter is you have the level of influence to say: “I don’t need to do every game, what Eni means to women’s football is much more important than me doing all of these games. Eni is one of the main characters of women’s football, I know that this is bigger for her. It’s going to be harder for her to get this opportunity in men’s football.”

‘That’s what I expect from an ally – sacrifice. You can’t have it both ways, you can’t have this brand that says ally, that’s not my experience of you. When it comes down to it, you never really tried.’

Wright’s representatives have been contacted for comment.

Earlier on Monday, ITV presenter Laura Woods took to X to tell Aluko that her comments about how women’s football should be ‘gatekept’ were ‘dragging women’s punditry backwards’.

Both were part of ITV punditry’s team during England Women’s successful defence in Switzerland last summer and, when reflecting on that, Aluko claimed ‘the women’s game should be by women, for women.’

‘Caps don’t win automatic work and they don’t make a brilliant pundit either,’ Woods wrote in a pointed response online. 

‘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.

‘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.’

In response to Woods’ posts, Aluko gave a statement to Daily Mail Sport which read: ‘I respect Laura’s opinion as I have always done. For 11 years I have worked alongside the likes of Laura and all those considered the best pundits in the game. It’s therefore clear I was considered one of the best too if I was part of the same punditry team.

‘No one who has ever hired me as a pundit has said I wasn’t good enough or did not have all the attributes Laura referred to. Quite the contrary. I believe that women’s football should prioritise women as the faces of the sport – it’s as simple as that.

‘I think women should be the dominant force in the women’s game in the same way that men are the dominant force in the men’s game. That means men should play more of a supporting role.

‘No one is saying any man should be excluded but the roles do need to be defined. That’s all I’m saying – and people are quite free to disagree whilst respecting my right to an opinion too.’

Woods hosted ITV’s coverage of the final in July, which England won on penalties against Spain.

Aluko was among the broadcaster’s line-up of pundits for the tournament in Switzerland but was not on the panel for the final, while Wright was alongside Karen Carney and Emma Hayes.

Speaking on her Friday’s episode of the 90s Baby Show, Aluko expressed frustration at the presence of male pundits Wright and Onuoha, the latter who worked for the BBC, for that final.

‘Last year at the Women’s Lionesses final, I’m sat in the stands, I wasn’t on it for ITV for the final,’ Aluko said. ‘Farah Williams was next to me. Farah Williams has 170 caps for England.

‘The two broadcasters that had the rights, ITV, BBC. On BBC, you’ve got Ellen White, Steph Houghton and Nedum Onuoha. No offence to Nedum Onouha, nothing against him, I don’t know whether he played for England or not. You’re on the main panel for the final for England Women.

‘Let’s go over to ITV, I’m in the stands with 105 caps, so you have got two women with 290 caps, something ridiculous right. Right ITV, it’s Ian Wright, Emma Hayes and Kaz Carney.

‘So out of six spots, two have gone to men, meanwhile you have got 290 (caps) sitting in the stands. I have never done a final and I am probably going to struggle to think of any woman, female pundit, who has done a men’s major final.

‘I am talking about as a pundit, so something is not right there. Why are people like me and Faz (Fara) not there. It is nothing against Ian and nothing against them, I am just saying broadly speaking we need to be aware of that.’

The BBC’s line-up had featured White, England women’s record goalscorer and Euro 2022 winner, along with former England captain Houghton.

Carney, who won 144 England caps during her career, and former Chelsea and current United States boss Hayes have both been regular pundits during major international tournaments.

Aluko claimed that there needs to be an effort to ‘gatekeep the women’s game in the same way the men’s game is gatekept’ and declared that there had been a lot of people – herself included – who had ‘planted a lot of seeds’ to reap the benefits of the growth of the women’s game.

‘From my perspective we didn’t go through all of that blood, sweat and tears for women to now be second place in our own sport. What are we doing?’ Aluko said.

‘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 are the main character of the show, we are just repeating the patriarchal stuff we have been fighting against.

‘Whoever that upsets, that upsets. I have always been protective about women’s football. I was doing women’s football when it didn’t pay to do women’s football. Now we are reaping the rewards, I am like, women should be winning right now.’

Aluko added that she has not been chosen to serve as a pundit for a major men’s final in 11 years of broadcasting, but admitted the ‘main guys should always be ahead of me’.

However, she insisted that female pundits are now ‘stuck’ with opportunities being taken up by men in the women’s game, while claiming she could ‘never do a men’s final’.

‘The limited opportunities in the women’s game are now being taken by men, but we can’t go into the men’s game and take the same opportunities. We are stuck,’ Aluko continued.

‘I can never do the men’s final. The only way I have an opportunity to do a final is the women’s final and now I can’t do the women’s final.

‘What I represent for young girls who want to be footballers, who want to be broadcasters, is way more than Ian Wright represents. Again, I am not knocking Ian Wright, it is not even about him, it could be any man. It is really important that we keep an eye on premium opportunities.

‘The issue I have with Ian is that in his position, he needs to clock what I am saying.’

Despite Aluko’s comments, Carney had been part of TNT Sport’s punditry line-up for the men’s Champions League final last year, joining Rio Ferdinand and Owen Hargreaves as part of the broadcaster’s team.

Following her appearance on the the 90s Baby Show, Aluko claimed she hasn’t had any pundit jobs with Wright after he rejected her apology for suggesting he was blocking female pundits from being given broadcasting opportunities.

Taking to Instagram on Sunday, she claimed Wright’s name is still being ‘weaponised’ against her by others nine months on from the saga, as she took aim at the former striker for the way he handled the fallout.

‘The reality is we had an opportunity nine months ago to quieten this, to have an adult conversation and talk about our different perspectives,’ Aluko said

‘When I apologised to Ian Wright publicly and privately he had an opportunity to show the grace and the allyship that he showed to many other people. And to prove that he’s the ally that everybody says he is.

‘Unfortunately, my sincerity, my humility, was met with disrespect.’

Aluko then said Wright’s refusal to accept her apology led to her being widely piled on, before claiming in a second video that she has not had any work gigs with Wright since their public fallout.

‘I’ve always been the person who ignores, whether I like that person or not, and you work together and move on,’ she continued.

‘I’m putting it out there that I’m more than open to a conversation with Ian Wright. I’ve said my piece. I’ve given more context. I’ve been quiet for a very long time.

‘The public will have their own views and opinions, the media will have their own views and opinions. I don’t live for that validation, anyway. So, (I’m) open to a conversation and if it happens, great. If it doesn’t happen, life moves on.’