James Mitchinson, the Editor of the Yorkshire Post, says he’d like the paper’s new Chief Football Writer to be “a girl.”
Yesterday. Richard Sutcliffe announced that he would be leaving the newspaper later this month.
He’s not publicly announced where he’ll be going next, although he follows a number of senior regional football writers linked to the imminent arrival of American sports site, The Athletic.
In a Twitter post last night, Mitchinson shared the advert for his replacement, saying: “As a boy, I’d dream of getting this job. As it happens, I want a girl to have it.”
As he probably could have anticipated, the choice of words drew Twitter debate, with some claiming it was positive discrimination, others patronising.
Mitchinson later explained that the reason for the wording was because he’d inherited a sports team “with not a single female journalist. 25 journalists. All men. I’m not cool with that.”