Sky's sexist TikTok channel deserved its online mauling

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the Lionesses?

- VICTORIA RICHARDS

Is it the fact that in July the England team won their second European Women’s Championship in a row by beating Spain on penalties in a nerve-wracking final in Switzerland? Or perhaps it's that it was the first major football trophy won abroad by any England team?

Or that they are objectively more successful overall than the men's team? When it comes to recent tournaments, the Lionesses have reached three major finals in a row, winning two, while the men's team hasn't won a major tournament since 1966.

Sky Sports, on the other hand, clearly has a very different way of marking the Lionesses' success - by introducing Barbies and memes, bright pink love hearts, talk of “matcha”... and references to “hot girl walks” in a brand new “female-focused sports channel” called Halo. And that got it an immediate red card for being sexist. The backlash to its ill-thought-out TikTok channel has, in fact, been so disastrous that it has been forced to pull it after only two days, admitting: “We didn't get it right.”

I'll say. When it launched last Thursday, Halo - touted by the broadcaster as the “li'l sis” of Sky Sports - was hyped as: “About all sports and championing female athletes. We're here for the culture, community and connection. We don't just watch sports - we live it.” Yet five of the first 11 videos featured male sports stars and the rest were full of pink text, love hearts and references to matcha lattes and Labubu toys. One toe-curling post about the newly elected New York mayor read: “Thinking about Zohran Mamdani rizzing us and Arsenal up.”

There was the Italian man in a cafe who, on seeing my pregnant belly, asked if I knew if I was having a boy or a girl. ‘A boy,’ he said, kissing his fingers. ‘This is what you want’