Anne-Sophie Depauw is not an isolated case. Anne Ruwet has been the face of football at RTL-TVI for several years now. Since 2018, she has been directing the programs dedicated to the Champions League on the private channel, but also during the Euro in Germany.
The trend is also observable elsewhere. In France in particular. In 2015, Charlotte Namura had already joined the team of the legendary show Telefoot on TF1. Since then, other female journalists or consultants have joined the sets of football shows, whether on TF1 once more, but also on Canal + or L’Équipe TV.
As we can see, women are increasingly present, even when we consider football as a masculine sport. They are not there to make up the numbers and intend to assert their credibility and expertise.
Despite this development, one area remains the preserve of men: match commentary. For the moment, female journalists mainly commentate on women’s competitions on television. This is the case, for example, with journalist Lise Burion. She commentated on the Women’s World Cup matches in 2023 on RTBF. But when will there be more women commentating on major men’s competitions like the World Cup or the Euro? Only time will tell.
