Can Joey Barton REALLY lecture Mary Earps with his controversial track record? From attacking teammates with lit cigars, being jailed for assault and ‘sexist’ social media rants against women pundits

• Barton dubbed Earps a ‘big sack of spuds’ after she scooped the sports award

When English football hero Mary Earps collected her Sports Personality of the Year gong, it was meant to be a night of celebration. Instead, it was met by a vitriolic response from some – including one-time England international, Joey Barton.

The controversial League One football manager lashed out after goalkeeping star Earps, 30, scooped the prestigious BBC title ahead of a host of sporting champions in other fields. 

Bitter Barton dubbed Earps – who was named the world’s best female goalkeeper after her heroics in the Women’s World Cup final – a ‘big sack of spuds’, as other critics claimed the achievements of other nominees like Stuart Broad, Frankie Dettori and Ronnie O’Sullivan ‘far outweighed’ those of ‘Mary Queen of Stops’.

‘To win before Ronnie O’Sullivan and Frankie Dettori…? Well, that’s just madness to me. Both almost genius like in their respective fields. They’ve lost to a big sack of spuds that plays in goal for a girls team,’ Barton tweeted.

‘That’s the world we live in. This all started with the ‘Everyone’s a Winner’ sport’s days. This is what happens when you celebrate mediocre [sic]. You breed this weak culture. A culture of losers. A culture of snowflakes.’ 

Joey Barton led a chorus of questions over why Earps, 30, claimed the top prize ahead of a host of champions in other fields, claiming she had ‘not won a sausage’, after her England side were defeated in the World Cup final

Audiences have branded the BBC ‘s Sport Personality of the Year award a ‘sham’ after Mary Earps won the public vote ahead of a host of champions in other fields

Barton  argues with Tottenham Hotspur’s English midfielder Scott Parker during the English Premier League football match between Queens Park Rangers and Tottenham Hotspur

It’s just the latest in a long string of controversies, which has seen ‘bad boy’ Barton jailed for assault and branded a ‘sexist’ for his online rants against female pundits commenting on the ‘beautiful game’.  

Former Manchester City and Newcastle star Barton was blasted earlier this month after he demanded Lioness hero Alex Scott ‘shouldn’t commentate on the men’s game’, during an outburst on X – formerly Twitter. 

His ‘sexist’ tirade included saying female football pundits commenting on the men’s game was the same as him ‘talking about knitting or netball’ – as he branded those who disagreed with him as ‘fart parcels’ and ‘eunuchs’. 

Appearing on Piers Morgan Uncensored, Barton then sought to defend his comments, again rounding on Scott and claiming she wasn’t qualified enough to commentate about the men’s game as she had never played in it. 

When grilled about his views. Barton said ‘she hasn’t played in it’, adding: ‘One is 200 years old and one is about 40 years old… it’s the same rules but football is about a lot more than rules… The games are at two different speeds.’

Barton said it was the same as him commentating on Formula One just because he can drive a car.

It’s far from the first time he has sparked controversy, though. In 2004 Barton jabbed a cigar in the eye of fellow Man City squad member Jason Tandy during a boozy Christmas do. 

Barton said his outburst was sparked after youth star Tandy provoked him, setting fire to his T-shirt in the run-up to the scuffle, which led to the footballing bad-boy being fined six weeks’ wages and an apology to despondent boss Kevin Keegan. 

Speaking earlier this month about the incident, Barton told the Anything Goes With James English podcast. ‘We were on the booze all day Sunday morning, and I think Paul Bosvelt or [Robbie] Fowler started it. They were all in fancy dress in this bar and started setting each other’s costumes alight.

Former Manchester City and Newcastle star Barton was blasted earlier this month after he demanded Lioness hero Alex Scott ‘shouldn’t commentate on the men’s game’

Barton explained on the podcast why he lashed out at Tandy during the boozy Christmas bash

He recalled sticking a cigar in Jamie Tandy’s eye in 2004 – but says his Man City teammate (pictured) had set his T-shirt on fire to provoke him 

‘So it was the seniors who started it, just burning the edge of it. In five or 10 minutes it went round the whole group and then it stopped.

‘I’d burned Tandy’s costume. Someone had got me, and then I’d burned Tandy back – no malice in it. He didn’t have the opportunity to get me back, everything gets calmed down, lighters are confiscated off everybody by the security.’

Four years later and Barton found himself yet again under the spotlight after a training ground brawl with ex-teammate, Ousmane Dabo, which saw wannabe hardman Barton slapped with a six-match ban by the FA in 2008.

Hot-headed Barton left the Frenchman distraught after pummeling him, leaving the wounded football star feeling like the ‘Elephant Man’ due to the swelling on his face.

Barton admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm after Dabo was left with cuts and bruises as well as a detached retina, and given a four-month suspended sentence. 

Speaking to The Sun after the attack, Dabo said: ‘When I woke up this morning I looked at myself in the mirror with my face all swollen up and I looked like the Elephant Man.

‘I’ve never known anything like this before in my career.’

Barton started his career at Manchester City and said that he got into a fight with Tandy and his brother after scorching his team-mate’s eyelid 

Barton of Newcastle United and Nigel Reo-Coker of Aston Villa argue during the Barclays Premier League match between Aston Villa and Newcastle United in 2011

Barton  clashes with Manchester City’s captain Vincent Kompany after being sent off by referee Mike Dean in 2012

That same year, Barton was sentenced to six months behind bars for common assault and affray following an incident in Liverpool city centre.

It came after a furious Barton was caught on CCTV punching a man 20 times and breaking a teenager’s teeth.  

The one-time England star was already on bail over an allegation of criminal damage involving a Liverpool taxi driver and the earlier fight with Dabo, when the book was thrown at him for his violent attack. 

He was convicted of assault and served 77 days in prison.

Barton has been as fiery on the pitch as off it. In 2012, he was slapped with a 12-game ban after elbowing Carlos Tevez in the throat during Premier League clash between his new team QPR and former side Man City. 

He also kicked out at Sergio Aguero, before a red card was shown and he squared up to Vincent Kompany and Mario Balotelli as he left the pitch. 

Barton (right) blames Carlos Tevez for setting him alight in QPR’s famous match against Man City, saying the striker punched him in the head twice – which led to his 12-game ban in 2012

Barton  protests to Referee Alan Wiley during the Barclays Premiership match between Manchester City and Chelsea in 2007

Barton grabs Freddie Ljungberg of Arsenal by the neck during the Barclays Premiership match between Arsenal and Manchester City at Highbury in 2005

The cast of The Only Way is Essex (pictured) taunted Barton after the QPR midfielder had a public spat with the gang on Twitter

As well as his ‘sexist’ rants against female pundits on social media, Barton has also clashed heads with his male counter-parts online, too. 

Following Barton’s sending off and ban during that chaotic 2012 clash, Match of the Day pundits Alan Shearer, Alan Hansen and Gary Lineker blasted his behaviour. 

Not happy with their scathing critic, Barton took to Twitter and wrote: ‘I’d take it off Hansen and @GaryLineker but not from that bell, same fella that stamped on Neil Lennon,then threatened FA if they banned him.”

He added: ‘I really don’t like that p****, in fact I honestly despise him… Goodnight.’

Lineker later defended Shearer, responding: ‘Still raging then? Still kicking out? And still, presumably, misunderstood? But only by yourself I suspect.’

To which bitter Barton responded, calling the former England captain an ‘odious little toad’.

In October last year, Barton was cleared of assaulting his wife after a judge ruled he could not have a fair trial because prosecutors would not call her to give evidence.

The ex-Premier League midfielder, was accused of pushing Georgia Barton, 36, to the floor before kicking her during a drunken row at their home in in Kew, south-west London on June 2, 2021.

Mrs Barton, who is said to have been left with a golf-ball sized bruise on her forehead and a bleeding nose, was ‘audibly upset and shaken’, when she dialled 999 just before 11.15pm, Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court heard.

‘My husband has just hit me in the house,’ she said, telling the call handler she had been left with a ‘bloody nose’ after Barton hit her ‘just in the face’, before officers arrived at the scene within 25 minutes.

Body-worn footage played in court captured Mrs Barton saying: ‘I was pushed and kicked about and stuff.’

The officer noted ‘a bit of a lump and some blood’, while speaking to a female officer in a utility room around five minutes later, Mrs Barton said her husband ‘just flipped out’ and ‘threw me down’.

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