Get Back in Your Caves, Boys! ; Sexists Who Don't Want to Know the Truth About Match of the Day's First Woman to Commentate, Look Away Now. She's a Football Fanatic, Knows More Than Most Men -- And Drinks Pints ...

Summary

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WHEN Jacqui Oatley first turned up to commentate on a football match four years ago, the male journalists in the Press box automatically assumed she must be the club's PR girl. It is easy to understand their confusion surely football commentators ought to be plain talking men with ruddy cheeks and battered sheepskin jackets?

Jacqui, with her highlighted blonde hair and tailored black trouser suits, certainly did not fit the image. So when it was announced last week that the 32-year-old was to become the first female commentator for the BBC's flagship football programme Match Of The Day, it came as no surprise that the news was greeted with unadulterated horror in the sporting fraternity.

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Extract

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Get Back in Your Caves, Boys! ; Sexists Who Don't Want to Know the Truth About Match of the Day's First Woman to Commentate, Look Away Now. She's a Football Fanatic, Knows More Than Most Men -- And Drinks Pints ...

Former Premiership manager Dave Bassett declared himself 'totally against it' and put it down to meaningless political correctness. An array of pundits lined up to wring their hands helplessly and ask whether nothing was sacred.

Internet bloggers criticised her voice for 'not sounding right' and frothed fulsomely that allowing the first female commentary in Match Of The Day's 43-year history was 'an embarrassing and excruciating insult'.

But while she may look like the...

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