Blackburn Rovers have become the latest voice in football to rebuke Joey Barton – after he shared a video reflecting on the town’s past.
The ex-Manchester City footballer shared a video showing schoolkids walking through the town’s streets and suggested we ‘never talk about equity’ over ‘diversity, equality, and inclusion’.
Barton appeared to be using the video, showing an all-white community in 1920s Blackburn, as part of his extended campaign against diversity and inclusion policies.
In response, the club wrote on X: ‘Hi Joey, if you could have your public meltdown without bringing our town into it, that’d be great. Thanks.’
Many fans supported the club taking a stand against him, though Barton followers came out in force to back him.
Blackburn Rovers have told Joey Barton to keep their town out of his ‘public meltdown’ after he posted an old video of their residents on X
Barton had written: ‘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.’
After Blackburn knocked him back, Barton engaged with users of X in the comment section.
He wrote: ‘Obviously some Rainbow flag waving, pronoun-demanding, university educated neo-Marxist has access to @Rovers twitter account. Does this twerp speak for the people of the area?’
Barton has been lashed for a series of sexist social media posts in recent weeks, including a series of tweets where he bizarrely compared football pundit Eniola Aluko and fellow ITV broadcaster Lucy Ward to serial killers Fred and Rose West.
Last week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suggested it is ‘completely ridiculous’ to exclude women from football punditry and said he would love for one of his daughters to grow up to be a commentator.
Earlier this month, Britain’s sports minister Stuart Andrew vowed to put pressure on social media companies in the wake of Joey Barton’s ‘dangerous and disgusting comments’.
Barton has launched repeated tirades against female football broadcasters in recent weeks, including Laura Woods, Alex Scott, and Bianca Westwood.
He also called it ‘dangerous’ for women to work at men’s clubs due to them ‘having full-blown affairs and costing people marriages’.
On Boxing Day, the 41-year-old took aim at Amazon Prime Video Sport for including former Liverpool goalkeeper Rachel Brown-Finnis as a pundit for the Reds’ 2-0 win over Burnley, saying her inclusion was ‘nonsense’ and ‘tokenism’.
After Mary Earps won Sports Personality of the Year, he gloated that he would score ‘100 out of 100 penalties’ against the Women’s World Cup Golden Glove holder.
He previously boasted that he would score ‘100 out of 100 penalties’ against Mary Earps after she won the Sports Personality of the Year Award in December.
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