Today, Twitter has been overly full of commenters suggesting that there was nothing wrong with the official Leeds United FC account tweeting out a clipped video of Karen Carney talking about the physical exhaustion often felt by Marcelo Bielsa teams at the tail end of seasons.<\/h2>\n

The Twitter account would have (and has) done the same for male pundits, surely this is the feminist\u2019s dream of equality?<\/p>\n

Instead of talking about equality, maybe we should talk in terms of social equity<\/em> instead.<\/p>\n

Football may well be the beautiful game, but football Twitter can be one of the ugliest places on the internet. Some fans delight in the anonymity of social media, of the ability to hide behind a username and unleash a torrent of abuse directly from their fingertips. As we have seen over again, with increasing frequency, players of colour are favoured targets for hateful comments. And so too, women who live and work in men\u2019s football \u2013 which isn\u2019t to say, women\u2019s football doesn\u2019t get its share of abuse too, as it absolutely does.<\/p>\n

Trolling<\/h3>\n

There is nothing surprising<\/a><\/strong> about the deluge of hate women in men\u2019s football get on social media, the tired comments have all been seen before. Comments about kitchens and sandwiches the mild end of the scale that goes all the way up to wishing cancer and rape upon an individual.<\/p>\n

So why have Leeds come out and said they were surprised by the reaction they incited in fans? After all it was just a few years ago that senior staff at the club were ordered to take part in equalities training after the club was found to have unfairly dismissed Lucy Ward on grounds of sexism [under former owner, Massimo Cellino].<\/p>\n

Even if current owner, Andrea Radrizzani wants the club to embrace the \u201cDirty Leeds\u201d tag and use it as fuel on the pitch, does the official Twitter account really need to rile the fans up? Indeed, after Bielsa\u2019s side clinically and ruthlessly took apart West Bromwich Albion last night, the 5-0 dismantling was cast aside as the Twitter storm rolled in off the horizon.<\/p>\n

\n

? \u201cPromoted because of Covid\u201d
\n? Won the league by 10 points
\n? Hi @primevideosport<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/Ctz18sksZA<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Leeds United (@LUFC) December 29, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n