The Daily Record writer Tam Cowan apologises for column claiming stadium should be 'torched' for hosting women's football
Daily Record columnist Tam Cowan has apologised unreservedly for the offence caused by a weekend column in which he said Fir Park stadium should have been “torched” for hosting women’s football.
Own goal: Sports pundit Tam Cowan
Cowan was suspended from his co-presenting role on BBC Scotland’s Off The Ball following Saturday’s column, which prompted a stream of angry emails and comments on social media.
The comedian responded on Monday with a column admitting he’d scored an own goal and said he would make a donation to women’s football.
“In 15 years as a Daily Record columnist it has never been my objective to deliberately upset readers – that’s a totally pointless exercise – and I’ve only tried to have a laugh, a joke and a carry-on,” he wrote.
“I’ve never expected anyone to take my column too seriously (try elsewhere in the paper for that sort of stuff) and I suppose my patter’s a bit like a bride on her wedding day – something old, something new, something borrowed and, yes, something blue.”
Cowan said he was “annoyed” at the Twitter outcry following his column, in which he described women’s football as a “turgid spectacle” and joked about female footballers being men.
He added that he was hurt by “misogynist nonsense” accusations, adding: “As for the ‘sexism’ stuff, the first thing I did when I finally sat behind the wheel – at the grand old age of 43 – was turn the old women drivers’ jokes on their head and start taking the mickey out of myself.
“By the way girls, my wife says she has never met a sexist misogynist who’s as good with a Dettol Wipe in the kitchen”.
Cowan said he’d tried to respond to every email complaint but said some of the abuse he received was “a wee bit scary”.
The columnist penned the article following the Scotland women’s team’s 7-0 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina.