No, the world isn’t ending, it’s just a woman hosting Sunday Supplement

The hugely experienced and pedigreed Jacqui Oatley is the new host of Sunday Supplement and the sexist reaction to the announcement from Sky Sports was as pathetic as it was expected

Jacqui Oatley will replace Neil Ashton on Sky Sports' Sunday Supplement (Sky Sports)

So, it shockingly wasn’t Donald Trump that did it. It wasn’t the US operation that took out General Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

It wasn’t the escalation of decades of stewing conflict between the United States and Iran that sparked absolute destruction. No, the ruination of man was a result of Sky Sports appointing a female to host the Sunday Supplement show.

“The world’s gone,” one tweet read. “The final nail in the coffin,” went another.

If you managed to survive the Apocalypse on account of not being An Absolute Moron and are consuming this from the other side of The End, welcome.

Jacqui Oatley will steer the debate of football’s big talking points on a Sunday morning and in memory of our fallen brethren, who wept that she ticked a box, let’s see which one that exactly is.

The presenter’s obsession with the sport took hold when she was 12 and having begun her football journalism career in 1999 after studying both print and broadcasting, she has anchored coverage on BBC’s radio and television properties.

Oatley was the first female football commentator on Match of the Day back in 2007 and has featured on Football Focus, Final Score, Sky’s Goals on Sunday and has led some of ITV’s football reportage.

The Wolverhampton native has covered World Cups, European Championships, Olympic football, has a handle of the English landscape well beyond the Premier League and has been a driver for the growth of the women’s game in all aspects.

Oatley is a qualified FA coach, has digested the Laws of the Game and was an awarded an MBE for services to broadcasting and diversity in sport.

So to summarise: she ticks the massively experienced box, the exceptionally informed box and the what-a-CV! box.

Oatley also has other requirements that aren’t compulsory for her male counterparts like super thick skin and a degree in slaying sexists.

She’s had to work, at the very least, doubly hard to carve a space for herself in the industry and did it back when Proper Football Men ruled supreme.

In many senses they still do, which is why there is such an overreaction when the crime of anyone different getting an opportunity is committed.

Oatley isn’t the host of Sunday Supplement because she is a woman, but because she is an A-list football broadcaster. It was not surprising to see those moaning that she is not the best candidate for the role fail to provide a weighty list of worthy alternatives.

There has been the fair question of whether it would have been better to have a writer rather than a broadcaster front the show, but those hard borders don’t really exist anymore.

Journalists have to be skilled in multiple platforms. Many print scribes are now regular TV and radio analysts and there is no ‘stick to papers’ shout. The industry, like all others, modifies with time.

There has never been a barrier to white men covering football on our screens, over the airwaves or in text, but talent alone has never been enough to smash through the blockade for everyone else.

It’s takes an incredible work ethic, persistence, extending your areas of expertise and continuously improving your craft of which Oatley is an excellent example.

Sure, media companies have finally become aware of the need to add diverse voices into the equation, but that doesn’t negate the above.

And as this latest episode proves, no matter how qualified and ace you are, there are still hordes who will scream ‘token.’

The ‘don’t feed the trolls’ retort is guaranteed to be rolled out, but this ignores the fact that they are self-fuelled by a toxic need to abuse and domineer. Even doing the job really well for decades offends them.

Those people are the problem, not Oatley. So, fellow survivors, make a brew this Sunday, tune in and toast to all of those who will “no longer be watching.” Good riddance.