14 June 2020

Former Arsenal and England star Alex Scott ‘frustrated’ by women‘s sport taking ‘backseat’ during pandemic

Former Arsenal and England defender Alex Scott feels the way women’s sport has been treated during the coronavirus lockdown is ‘not acceptable’.

The Women’s Super League season was recently abandoned as Chelsea were handed the title and Liverpool relegated to the second tier.

Scott is concerned with how the pandemic could affect the momentum of women's sport (PA Images)

And while Scott feels strongly about her own sport, she is concerned this is happening across the board as women’s sport struggles to build on the momentum it had coming in to the pandemic.

Speaking on Radio 5 Live, she said: "That's frustrated me. Not even just women's football - women's sport has taken a backseat in it [sport returning].

"I was saying last week that it's not acceptable. Women's sport in general has gained positive momentum and visibility for us does matter.

"But now we're going to go a whole summer of just watching men's sport again."

Along with no women’s football this summer, there will also be no high-profile tennis due to the postponement of the French Open and cancellation of Wimbledon.

The Premier 15s rugby season has been called off, while sports such as cricket and boxing remain up in the air.

So, with a quiet summer ahead, Scott believes now is the time to look at how to improve women’s sport when it does eventually make a big comeback.

"I'm really pushing that when women's sport does return it doesn't just continue," she added. "It needs to be better and we need to put things in place so that it won't happen again."

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