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London - Women in English soccer on Tuesday defended the game from charges of widespread sexism, following a row over comments by Sky Sports presenters Richard Keys and Andy Gray about a female match official.
Host Keys and pundit Gray, a former Scotland international striker, have been temporarily suspended by the broadcaster after they were recorded questioning whether assistant referee Sian Massey "knew the offside rule".
Massey, 25, ran the line at Saturday's Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Liverpool.
Speaking before kickoff, Keys said, "Somebody better get down there and explain offside to her". Gray retorted, "I know, can you believe that? A female linesman...".
Keys later added, "The game's gone mad", before going on to mock recent comments about sexism in football made by West Ham United vice-chairman Karren Brady, one of the highest-profile women in the game.
Donna Cullen, a director of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, said Massey was officiating a Premier League match "on merit".
"She would have come up through the system, and her superiors would have thought she was the right person for the job. Why would they doubt her?" Cullen told Reuters on Tuesday.
Male dominated
"In a male-dominated sport you are always going to get the odd remark, but in more than 20 years of working in football, I cannot say sexist remarks like that have ever been an issue for me.
"I believe I am treated as an honorary male in football, and I don't believe being female has anything to do with my work.
"Things have changed a lot. Twenty years ago some clubs did not find it acceptable to have female directors in the boardroom, but that has changed enormously," Cullen added.
Although Massey is one of only three female officials at the top level, over 20,000 women have successfully attained FA coaching qualifications, according to the English Football Association.
Samantha Lee, a member of the national committee of the Football Writers Association, who has covered soccer in Scotland and the north east of England for nearly 17 years, said Keys and Gray were "ridiculous" to judge Massey "just because she was female".
"When I started in my career I was very aware that being a female made it much tougher, and you could never make a mistake because if you did, you were accused of making it because you were female," she said.
"Times have changed. Boys and girls play football together now growing up, and there are attitudes totally different than those of the older generation - and Richard Keys and Andy Gray."
Although FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been criticised in the past for making remarks about women footballers and sexy shorts, FIFA has actively encouraged the development of the women's game, with this year's Women's World Cup in Germany a huge undertaking with matches in nine venues across the country.
There have been huge changes in the women's game in England, one of the 16 finalists.
Ashanti Dickson, who works as an agent in rugby union but also has dealings with footballers, said sexist attitudes to women have changed for the better.
"In the main, people at the top of professional sport are just that, educated and professional and deal with me, as a female, in that way," she told Reuters.
"There are female referees in rugby, and women are encouraged into that sport as they are into football. I do think sexist attitudes have changed, but as these remarks show, they still exist."
