Eni Aluko bites back at Laura Woods with fresh statement as feud over Ian Wright's punditry continues

In what has been a remarkable 24 hours for Aluko, she has once again taken aim at Arsenal legend Wright for her belief that he continues to block her path into opportunities in football. She complained that during the Women's Euro 2025 final, two of the six punditry spots on BBC and ITV were taken by men: Wright, and former Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha. 

She said in the 90s Baby Show:  “Last year, at the Women’s Lionesses final, I’m sat in the stands, I wasn’t on ITV for the final, Fara Williams was sat next to me, Fara Williams has 170 caps [172 caps] for England, something ridiculous, I think she’s the most-capped player, she’s sat in the stands.

“The two broadcasters that had the rights for the game – ITV and BBC – on BBC you’ve got Ellen White, Steph Houghton and Nedum Onuoha, no offence to Nedum Onuoha, nothing against him, I don’t know whether he played for England or not, but 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’ve got two women, between us we’ve got 290 caps, something ridiculous, you turn over to ITV and it’s Ian Wright, Emma Hayes and Kaz [Karen] Carney.

“So out of six punditry spots, two have gone to men. Meanwhile you’ve got 290 caps, whatever it is, sitting in the stands. It’s nothing against Ian, it’s nothing against them, I’m just saying broadly speaking we need to be aware of that because if we’re building a game where the limited opportunities are now being taken by men, where we can’t go into the men’s game and get the same opportunities, we’re stuck.”

She signed off by saying: "The issue I have with Ian is that, I think in his position he needs to clock what I'm saying."

ITV presenter Woods, though, took umbrage at Aluko's claim, insisting that the broadcasters got it spot on: "Caps don’t win automatic work and they don’t make a brilliant pundit either. 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.”

Aluko has now claimed that Wright should deliberately step aside to allow her to work, referring to herself as a "main character in women's football" in a remarkable new rant, as she also accused him of failing to be an "ally". 

She said in a new episode of the podcast, released on Monday: “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.”

Aluko took aim at Wright last year and later apologised, but the Arsenal icon refused to accept her apology. He has yet to weigh in on this latest diatribe, but it remains to be seen if he will raise his head above the parapet. Aluko did work on the Euro 2025 tournament, but she did not cover England, nor was she asked to contribute to the final.