Advertisement

PSG coach Laurent Blanc asks female journalist if she ‘knows what 4-3-3 means’

Ryan Bailey
(Getty/Twitter)
(Getty/Twitter)

Paris Saint-Germain manager Laurent Blanc has embroiled himself in a sexism scandal after mocking a female journalist's football nous during a press conference.

Swedish reporter Johanna Frändén, who covers all things Zlatan Ibrahimovic for Sweden's Aftonbladet newspaper, posed a question to Blanc about his decision to switch from a 4-4-2 formation to 4-3-3. Rather than sensibly deal with the query — like he would any other journalist in the room who wasn't an attractive blonde Swede — the former World Cup-winning defender gave a diminishing response (via The Metro):

‘I mean, women talking football tactics, it’s so beautiful,’ the Paris St-Germain chief told her in a press conference.

‘I think it’s fantastic. You know what 4-3-3 means, don’t you?’

Franden replied by saying that it ‘is my job to know what it means’, before Blanc continued his sarcastic answers.

‘I mean, there’s a lot of ways of playing. Haha – just joking.’

Understandably, Blanc's implication that women should only talk about fluffy kittens and baking (rather than complicated things like where some men should stand in a game) has provoked plenty of outrage in the non-sexist football community.

At the time of writing, the Frenchman has yet to issue an apology.

Blanc isn't the first manager to convey overt sexism in a press conference,however, as Former Australia boss Holger Osieck told a room full of journalists that "women should shut up in public" during the summer. He doesn't have a job now.

- - - - - - -

Ryan Bailey

is a writer for Dirty Tackle on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!