Press Releases

The Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation and leading women’s sport magazine, Sportsister, respond to the nominating panel for the BBC Sports Personality of Year Award. The panel includes Nuts and Zoo magazines, but no women’s publications. Neither Nuts nor Zoo nominated a female athlete in their top ten and the final awards shortlist contained no female athletes.

Sue Tibballs, Chief Executive of the Women’s Sport & Fitness Foundation, said:

“Having seen the make up of the SPOTY nominations panel, we’re horrified to see Nuts and Zoo being asked to vote in what is an already male dominated panel. Neither put forward a single woman between them and if they weren’t part of the panel, we believe that at least one woman would have made it into the top ten.

“We know that the British sports culture is very male dominated and women’s sport struggles to get the profile and attention it deserves, but we also know British sports fans hold women’s sport in high regard. The question is, does the panel reflect the views of sports fans – the public response today would suggest not.

“We applaud the BBC for being open about the judging process, however, we would ask them think again about Nuts and Zoo and include the likes of Sportsister, to ensure it has greater representation of women.”  

Co-founder of women’s sport magazine Sportsister, Danielle Sellwood, said:

“Sportsister was utterly shocked that there was not one single woman amongst the ten nominations for BBC Sports Personality Of The Year in a year that has seen some outstanding performances by female athletes. This just further highlights the lack of visibility in the media for our high performing sportswomen, but it also clearly raises questions regarding the nomination system.

“Those asked to nominate should be recognised and respected sports journalists who have an extensive knowledge of all sport. Through this we should achieve a balanced and impressive list of athletes from a broad mix of sports. On the eve of 2012, it’s a real missed opportunity to shine the spotlight on some of the athletes we will be watching win medals in sports such as triathlon, swimming and rowing - all of which have current British world champions.”

Key facts on women’s sport

• The Big Deal? report, from the Commission on the Future of Women’s Sport, showed that UK sponsorship of women’s elite sport amounted to 0.5% of the total sport sponsorship market between January 2010 and August 2011.

• There is an appetite from fans – England Women’s World Cup quarter final against France was watched by a peak audience of 3.2m in the UK and the final between USA and Japan was the most tweeted about sporting event in history.
• Also the 2011 women’s FA Cup final gained an average audience of 242,000 - an increase of over 100,000 viewers from 2010, and these figures are growing.
• Additionally, viewers are calling for more women's sport – our Prime Time? research in 2010 shows that there is a demand among sports fans, with 61% wanting to see more
• This matters because the lack of role models contributes to 80% of women and girls not being active enough to benefit their health.

For more information and interviews please call the WSFF media team on: 020 7010 0865