Who is football pundit Lucy Ward?

LUCY WARD embarked on a successful career as a pundit after retiring as a professional footballer.

In January 2024, the star was supported by fans and other celebrities after comments were made about her by Joey Barton.

Fans have showed their support for sport commentator Lucy Ward after Joey Barton made comments about herJoe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images

Who is football pundit Lucy Ward?

Lucy Ward is a football pundit who used to play the sport professionally.

She started her career with Leeds United Ladies in 1996, when it was still a community team, and stayed with the squad as it became one of the most prominent teams in England.

During the 2002/03 season, Ward moved to Doncaster Rovers Belles but swiftly returned to Leeds the following year.

Ward has also represented England internationally, playing for the Under-21 team when she was just 16 years old.

Ward was the head of education and welfare at Leeds United’s academy but left the role in 2015.

Since 2007 she has worked as a football pundit, covering the Women’s World Cup in China, the Euro 2009 qualifiers and the London 2012 Olympic Games for the BBC.

Ward has also worked for BT Sport, Channel 4 and Sky, and is now part of ITV’s football coverage team.

Who is Lucy Ward’s partner?

Lucy Ward is in a long-term relationship with Neil Redfearn.

The couple share a love of football as Redfearn is a coach and former player who is the lead professional development phase coach of Bradford City.

After Redfearn was sacked as manager of Leeds United’s men’s club by Massimo Cellino, who then owned the club, in 2015, Ward also lost her job at the team’s academy.

After an employment tribunal in 2016, Ward won a sex discrimination case and was awarded £290,000 in damages, to be paid by Cellino.

Ward opened up about the ordeal in an interview with The Guardian in June 2023.

When asked if she is still a supporter of Leeds, the team where she started and finished her professional career, Ward said: “That’s a really difficult question.

“I loved Leeds – but that’s in the past tense as it’s very difficult to separate what happened with the people still there.

“I had an apology from Andrea Radrizzani [who bought Leeds from Cellino] but I look at the club through different eyes.”

She added: “The Leeds fans are brilliant with me and have always been supportive and recognised what me and Neil did for the club.

“But in my job now you can’t support any team so it’s worked out quite well in that sense.”

What did Joey Barton say about Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko?

Lucy Ward and fellow female pundit Eni Aluko were supported by fans and celebrities alike after former footballer Joey Barton made comments about the pair and their work as part of a sexist tirade.

The former Manchester City and Newcastle player compared Ward and Aluko to Fred and Rose West, two of Britain’s worst serial killers, in a bizarre social media post.

In January 2024 Barton took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to post about Aluko.

He wrote: “How is she even talking about Men’s football. She can’t even kick a ball properly.

“Your coverage of the game EFC last night, took it to a new low.”

He then added: “Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward, the Fred and Rose West of football commentary.”

ITV Sport called out Barton in a statement, condemning his comments.

A spokesperson for the channel said: “For Joey Barton, an ex-professional player with a significant social media presence, to target two of our pundits, Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward, with such vindictive remarks based on gender and to involve the names of serial killers in doing so is clearly contemptible and shameful on his part.

“Football is for everyone.”

Celebrities like Piers Morgan,  Laura Woods and Bianca Westwood were also quick to call out Barton over his comments.