Scottish Football Writers' Association apologises as Eilidh Barbour slams off-colour dinner speech

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A sports writers' association has apologised after an after-dinner speaker at its awards allegedly littered his speech with off-colour jibes, prompting a walk-out by female attendees.Eilidh Barbour, who reports for Sky Sports News and BBC Sport, criticised the tone of ex-criminal defence lawyer Bill Copeland's speech at the Scottish Football Writers' Association (SFWA) dinner on Sunday.

In a tweet that has since gone viral, she wrote: "Never felt so unwelcome in the industry I work in than sitting at the Scottish Football Writers Awards. "A huge reminder there is still so much to do in making our game an equal place #callitout #equalgame."Dunkeld-born Barbour's table stood up and left the room in protest at Copeland's speech, which was allegedly littered with sexist and racist jibes.

While her tweet did not identify Copeland, others who had also been in attendance at the dinner - handing out awards to Scottish football's best performers in the last year - came forward to identify him as the speaker.

Others also joined Barbour in standing up from their tables and leaving the room in disgust. Journalist Gabriella Bennett, who co-chairs the Women In Journalism advocacy group, was among them.