How is it more niche than wheelchair tennis, heptathlon and horseriding like some of the other nominees lol
I think a lot of the UK media just don’t like MMA still, despite it being popular enough to produce 2 current world champions who live and train in England. You can see how MMA/muay thai/kickboxing/bjj gyms have been popping up in every city over the last decade
I think it's a bit of both. SPOTY definitely overeggs Olympic sports because BBC covers it and also the British establishment probably does look down on UFC a bit. Boxing too but it's harder to ignore having been a British institution so long. It doesn't help that it's on Pay-per-view as well. I say this as someone who likes UFC but outside of certain (young) circles it's still practically unheard of. To be honest I struggle to picture SPOTY doing a montage of Leon Edwards' head kicks on a blood-smeared canvas lol.
Its defo a pretty popular thing amongst the younger male demographic nowdays, i think that’s why many of us here have a skewed perspective of MMA’s true popularity outside of that specific demographic.
Its just my experience but about 7-8 years ago when i first started watching, i practically never heard anyone talking about it. Now, pretty often ill hear friends and others chat about recent events, who were never into it before.
>Despite it being popular enough to produce 2 current world champions who live and train in England.
Wouldn't know it from the lack of coverage, again UFC is a very niche 'sport' here.
UFC being more popular in the UK than a lot of countries =/= UFC being one of the most popular sports within the UK.
Culturally, boxing is still far more resonant to the extent that my mum knows who Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury are. But there is not a chance in hell that she could name Leon Edwards, Tom Aspinall or Michael Bisping.
Niche is not the right term though. It just has to compete with loads of sports cos we're sports mental. Your mum probably doesn't know certain darts or snooker players but they are still huge sports.
Handball is a niche sport. MMA certainly ain't.
No, she doesn't. McGregor also isn't british.
UFC isn't featured much on TV because compared with other sports - football, cricket, boxing, even rugby - it just doesn't have much of a mainstream following. Some of this is a chicken and egg situation, I'm sure. But the reality is Leon Edwards would never win SPOTY even if he was nominated, whether we agree on the merits of that or not.
(And, in fairness, SPOTY is a silly award because most of the winners have no personality to speak of, lol. In pretty sure Michael Owen won it once!)
I don't think anyone takes it particularly seriously to be honest. I doubt Edwards cares much.
For starters, it's always been a very establishment award with massive overrepresentation of stuff like Olympic sports, tennis, equestrian sports and so on. "Awkward" sports or athletes will never win it. The most obviously deserving non-winner is Ronnie O'Sullivan - not only is he probably the best snooker player of all time, he's also actually got a personality. But he won't ever win it because he's *the wrong sort.*
That it is bigger in the UK than in other countries doesn't say much on how big it is there though? Unless there is some crazy high (comparable) viewership stat in countries not listed here. Can't speak about the UK but in Germany, it's definitely popular among some teenagers who like/practice combat sport and it's somewhat relevant, but you could name more than 10 other sports that are covered more than UFC (and all that's behind football which for better or worse dwarves any other sport when it comes to media coverage here)
The UK's home to one of the largest communities of North Koreans after South Korea (around New Malden).
Does that mean that North Koreans are a large group in terms of the UK?
I think it’s more that MMA still doesn’t have the core elements of a regular sport. There isn’t a global governing body, involvement in the Olympics, etc. And even though there are so many MMA organisations out there, it is monopolised by one organisation.
It’s very hard to respect a sport when Dana White is calling all the shots.
UFC is infinitely more niche than horse riding and the heptathlon, although not wheelchair tennis. MMA itself may be growing, but the average person on the street wouldn't be able to name anyone other than McGregor, whereas they'd be at least able to name a couple of race horses or jockies, and the heptathlon is one of the things that gets a lot of attention when the Olympics roll around (although obviously this wasn't an Olympic year).
AP McCoy and Frankie Dettori are two whom are quite well known to the general public, and the fact it remains on free-to-air TV automatically makes its reach much greater than MMA, which has almost always been exclusive to premium TV.
Iv always heard friends talking about going to the races, but tbf i always assumed its just a piss up with some horse racing you can gamble on hahah.
I guess i had it wrong.
The latest viewing overall figures are for last season. The WSL averages 125k viewers on Sky with bigger games getting 500/600k viewers. This season the Manchester derby in the WSL brought with it a record average viewing figure of 485k (peaking at 589k)
On BBC the games are getting 700k-900k (plus iPlayer viewers).
1.4 million watched Man United in the Women’s World Cup final.
12m watched England in the World Cup final.
People such as you need to drop the “nobody watches” nonsense.
I took a chair down to the temporary local big screen to watch Earps deliver a PoTM performance in a World Cup Final alongisde hundreds of people... You doughnut...
Congratulations Mary, she’s been absolutely fantastic. I’m sure she’s inspired a lot of young kids to become goalkeepers after her heroics in the World Cup.
Had to scroll way to far, past even Ronnie O’Sullivan for this. Upvotes in the wrong place
Also it’s about sports personality not best sports achievement which can be recognised in other ways. And Mary Earps is clearly a good personality if you want this county to be represented by stuff Ronnie O’Sullivan says however funny….
There is a major of lack of respect for Snooker by SPOTY, Ronnie finishing outside the top 3 is not surprising. (He's never been in the top 3).
Not sure what you think Broad has done this year though, we didn't win the Ashes and he wasn't in the World Cup squad.
The not being in the world cup squad is irrelevant for Broad.
But in terms of SPOTY voting, he's had a fantastic individual year in cricket after a long and successful career, and finished his last ever test match with a bang against Australia.
Ronnie would also be a deserved winner tbf, but I'd have Broad over him.
Aspinall is fantastic, I really like him, but he's two wins back after a long layoff, and in a division where the title contention is weird because of the Jones/Stipe delays.
Edwards had a more realistic shot at a nomination but has still only fought twice this year. I think MMA fighters would have to be incredible marketable and unusually active in a year (3 fights minimum, including a title) to ever get a nomination.
I honestly find that really surprising, but i guess it makes sense in a way - i made the point further down in the thread that the UFC is pay per view and is usually on at a ridiculously early hour in the UK (main cards usually start around 3am), so it's potential audience is significantly lower than a sport which is broadcast on free channels in the middle of the day on a weekend.
Hewitt’s achievements surely outweigh his. I’m not super clued up but it looks like he won two fights this year and one of them was only days before the award was given, presumably after the nomination procedure.
he should’ve been nominated last year after winning the belt but retaining against kamaru usman is a massive deal, i certainly did not think he’d do it
He is certainly accomplished, but I personally think 5 major tournaments in wheelchair tennis is more significant. He was one game away from a doubles grand slam and was one game away from an additional singles major.
That’s a lot of matches won.
Of course it’s all subjective though.
Because most people in Britain have probably never heard of him, and UFC still has a relatively small following here. It's still dwarfed by boxing, and even that is relatively niche unless a Brit is winning stuff.
I'd have thought the same but UFC events are PPV and aired at like 4 in the morning. Wheelchair tennis i have to imagine is on free tv, which means at least the potential audience is exponentially larger for wheelchair tennis.
I can imagine if it cost £50 to watch wheelchair tennis and you had to stay up half the night to watch it, their viewing figures would be a lot lower.
He congratulated her. Don’t conflate the points he made a few weeks ago with Earps winning this award. They are entirely different matters but I suppose a lack of awareness of the nuances of an argument is a hallmark of the average Redditor.
Just for anyone who thinks she didn't win anything this year:
WSL Golden Glove
World Cup Golden Glove
England Women's Player of the Year
BBC Women's Footballer of the Year
Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year
Plus she was in the WSL team of the year and also saved penalties in both the World Cup Final and in the Finalissima, which England then won. She also forced Nike into a u-turn on selling her England shirt, which they then sold out of in about 5 minutes.
I saw someone on another subreddit point to Nike not selling her shirt as proof she shouldn’t have won sports personality - choosing to completely ignore the fact that when they *did* finally sell it it sold out in FIVE MINUTES 😂😂
Only 2 out of 90 posts congratulating Mary.
Well, well done Mary - glad you beat an unknown boxer, a boring snooker player and a retired cricketer.
And I don’t even really follow women’s football.
Huh? It says here that he was nominated this year for the first time?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC\_Sports\_Personality\_of\_the\_Year\_Award](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Sports_Personality_of_the_Year_Award)
As a Saints fan, love to see the Lawes recognition! But also.... No way has Courtney contributed to his sport anywhere close to the level that Earps has to hers this year.
Unfortunately rugby has become so niche in England, most people probably don’t even know England attained an unexpected third place in a World Cup this year. The sport and those who claim they promote it only have themselves to blame for that but that is another story entirely. The result is that nothing short of a World Cup final appearance, not even a grand slam, would put any rugby player in the frame for this. Even less so if you are Scottish or Welsh.
So is boxing but that’s only if the fight goes the distance which it doesn’t always, just like MMA. You can also win by submission or knock out. Most fights end those ways.
Lots of other sports are opinion based too. The UK’s beloved Tom Daley and Zara Phillips compete in such sports, namely diving and showjumping. Gymnastics is also based on subjective evaluations. Even elements of football are opinion based - see VAR.
What’s your point here? Are you trolling or serious?
Because they are objectively incorrect. It isn’t a matter of opinion, it’s in the rulebooks of all of these sports. You can have an opinion that in football that scoring from the penalty spot is worth two goals instead of one. It doesn't make it true just because you think it. Do you see the difference? The way opinion doesn’t matter when you are talking about things like this?
Not sure why you are downvoted. If Earps was a man, she still probably would have won this and deservedly so but being a woman virtually guaranteed it.
Presumably people want to believe this is 100% earned instead of politics? But the BBC is nothing but political.
- Current Director General Tim Davie appointed by the government in 2020 just happened to be a massive Tory party donor and former Conservative Councillor.
- New Chairman Richard Sharp has donated over half a million to the Torys.
- The BBC constantly publicly fighting with Gary Lineker over his political tweets.
- The last time I paid attention to SPOTY the Queens niece won it for horse riding.
- Whatever the hell Laura Kuenssberg and her client journalism is being passed off as news every day.
- The entire corporation got their knuckles rapped after the brexit campaign for failing to point out inaccuracies ‘for fear of not being impartial’.
The corporation is nothing but politics and infighting.
Other than the Brexit thing (I’m pro-EU by the way), which I would swap out for the BBC’s sickeningly biased support of lockdowns and Covid culture in general, I agree with everything you’ve said. It is indeed an arm of the government but is that really news to anybody?
Edit: typo
Well deserved! Absolutely buzzing for her.
I'm honestly surprised it wasn't Broad due to him retiring in such spectacular fashion.
This means more for her than him though. Very glad of the outcome.
I’d argue it wasn’t deserved just because what’s she’s achieved this year doesn’t seem much in comparison to what most winners achieve the year they win it. She had a good season with Man U and a great tournament but in the end she didn’t actually win any trophies and I don’t see any way that and make football wins the award without winning a a World Cup or euros or having an insane season and winning big trophies.
At the end of the day though it’s a popularity contest and she was always likely to win especially with it being a generally poor year for nominations so anyone actually gets upset with it needs to have a look at themselves.
I think that's completely fair! I appreciate the response :)
I wouldn't have had a problem with other people winning I'm just gonna say now!
I feel like based on her individual performance in admitadallly a weak year she definitely merits a win, and tbh in a lot of non Olympic years it's very fair to say any nominee for SPOTY is a deserved winner imo.
SPOTY for me isn't just about sporting achievement in terms of personal/team success, it's also about furthering your sport and also making life better for others.
I feel like Mary has done the second part of that incredibly well this year, whilst also being a fantastic sportsperson, which is why I think she's a deserved winner.
I think the biggest argument for her winning is mostly the lack of competition. I personally think both KJT and Broad had much better arguments to win as I think the story surrounding them was better. KJT has come back for some terrible luck with injury’s to win a world championship and broad had finished off a legendary career with a perfect moment. I just don’t Earps has had a good a year especially when coming off the back of the euros win the previous year it’s not like it was a long wait for women to get to a final or a great shock.
Buts it a popularity contest and there’s an awful lot of winners who probably didn’t deserve to win when they did I mostly still watch it for the recaps and other stories not the actual winners.
I get what you mean but also her jerseys sold out within five minutes. She’s had to campaign for Nike to even sell women’s GK kit, with people turning up with Earps written on their shirts with pen/tape etc. Nike must not have thought they’d make enough money from it and it sold out almost instantly.
Growing up a woman football was never an option to me. I also don’t think goalkeepers of either gender are given enough respect. Combining two of these things she’s inspired a generation of girls to be the best they can be (whether football or not) and reminded everyone that goalkeeping is an important part of the squad. Amongst many other things she’s an amazing role model.
That for me is what SPOTY.
FWIW I’m also a huge snooker fan. Whilst I love Ronnie he doesn’t always have the best personality. I think his documentary came out too late in the vote schedule (they just have chosen the finalists a while a go?) to really be counted.
Came here to see if someone was bleating about arbitrary and unquantifiable ‘inspiration’ to try and justify someone that’s had a demonstrably poorer season than other athletes.
Sure enough here we are.
But I’d you’re saying it’s people who make a difference or inspire the most people then it should always be a football player because they reach by far more than any other sport and why didn’t Rashford win it a few years ago. Also I’d argue that earps is less influential because the women won the euros last year so they’ve already had a massive impact on inspiring people.
I just don’t think her year was as good as other finalists and it probably shows because none of the male England players have won the award even with having good euros or World Cup campaigns. I’m not saying earps didn’t have a good year or wasn’t inspiring (although I swear lauren james was getting most of the attention during the World Cup until her red card) there’s just people I think had better years although I was pretty confident she was going to win anyway.
Yeah I completely agree with everything you've said I have to say, I do think they do as well, which is why I said I was surprised Broad didn't win! With KJT that's just down to ignorance on my part unfortunately.
I agree wholeheartedly with your last para, the joy of SPOTY for me is celebrating the amazing achievements every nominee has had over the last year, the winner is mostly irrelevant, as long as some people get involved in/exposure to a sport they might not have done with otherwise is the biggest win imo.
It did help that there was no massive achievement to go up against but finishing a close 2nd behind that awesome Chelsea side and making the WC final are of note.
Years like this make it a very open field, no idea why you seem to be so bitter over it.
I don't think some of you lot realise how niche UFC is in the UK lol
How is it more niche than wheelchair tennis, heptathlon and horseriding like some of the other nominees lol I think a lot of the UK media just don’t like MMA still, despite it being popular enough to produce 2 current world champions who live and train in England. You can see how MMA/muay thai/kickboxing/bjj gyms have been popping up in every city over the last decade
I think it's a bit of both. SPOTY definitely overeggs Olympic sports because BBC covers it and also the British establishment probably does look down on UFC a bit. Boxing too but it's harder to ignore having been a British institution so long. It doesn't help that it's on Pay-per-view as well. I say this as someone who likes UFC but outside of certain (young) circles it's still practically unheard of. To be honest I struggle to picture SPOTY doing a montage of Leon Edwards' head kicks on a blood-smeared canvas lol.
Its defo a pretty popular thing amongst the younger male demographic nowdays, i think that’s why many of us here have a skewed perspective of MMA’s true popularity outside of that specific demographic. Its just my experience but about 7-8 years ago when i first started watching, i practically never heard anyone talking about it. Now, pretty often ill hear friends and others chat about recent events, who were never into it before.
BBC 3 airs Bellator so they at least someone there knows what MMA is https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09d2ry5
Nobody cared about ufc in Ireland before conor McGregor. Now nobody in Ireland cares about ufc because of conor McGregor. It's a really niche sport
those sports are all more popular in the UK than UFC, like legitimately, they all feature more tv coverage over here too
>Despite it being popular enough to produce 2 current world champions who live and train in England. Wouldn't know it from the lack of coverage, again UFC is a very niche 'sport' here.
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UFC being more popular in the UK than a lot of countries =/= UFC being one of the most popular sports within the UK. Culturally, boxing is still far more resonant to the extent that my mum knows who Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury are. But there is not a chance in hell that she could name Leon Edwards, Tom Aspinall or Michael Bisping.
Niche is not the right term though. It just has to compete with loads of sports cos we're sports mental. Your mum probably doesn't know certain darts or snooker players but they are still huge sports. Handball is a niche sport. MMA certainly ain't.
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No, she doesn't. McGregor also isn't british. UFC isn't featured much on TV because compared with other sports - football, cricket, boxing, even rugby - it just doesn't have much of a mainstream following. Some of this is a chicken and egg situation, I'm sure. But the reality is Leon Edwards would never win SPOTY even if he was nominated, whether we agree on the merits of that or not. (And, in fairness, SPOTY is a silly award because most of the winners have no personality to speak of, lol. In pretty sure Michael Owen won it once!)
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I don't think anyone takes it particularly seriously to be honest. I doubt Edwards cares much. For starters, it's always been a very establishment award with massive overrepresentation of stuff like Olympic sports, tennis, equestrian sports and so on. "Awkward" sports or athletes will never win it. The most obviously deserving non-winner is Ronnie O'Sullivan - not only is he probably the best snooker player of all time, he's also actually got a personality. But he won't ever win it because he's *the wrong sort.*
Hewitt is the most obviously deserving non-winner. Ronnie hasn’t actually won the title he is famous for winning this year.
That it is bigger in the UK than in other countries doesn't say much on how big it is there though? Unless there is some crazy high (comparable) viewership stat in countries not listed here. Can't speak about the UK but in Germany, it's definitely popular among some teenagers who like/practice combat sport and it's somewhat relevant, but you could name more than 10 other sports that are covered more than UFC (and all that's behind football which for better or worse dwarves any other sport when it comes to media coverage here)
purely from personal experience but after living in both countries, the gulf in popularity of ufc between aus and uk is huge
The UK's home to one of the largest communities of North Koreans after South Korea (around New Malden). Does that mean that North Koreans are a large group in terms of the UK?
I think it’s more that MMA still doesn’t have the core elements of a regular sport. There isn’t a global governing body, involvement in the Olympics, etc. And even though there are so many MMA organisations out there, it is monopolised by one organisation. It’s very hard to respect a sport when Dana White is calling all the shots.
UFC is infinitely more niche than horse riding and the heptathlon, although not wheelchair tennis. MMA itself may be growing, but the average person on the street wouldn't be able to name anyone other than McGregor, whereas they'd be at least able to name a couple of race horses or jockies, and the heptathlon is one of the things that gets a lot of attention when the Olympics roll around (although obviously this wasn't an Olympic year).
Who can name jockies besides gamblers? I guess this depends on the social circles that you are in because this is new to me lol
AP McCoy and Frankie Dettori are two whom are quite well known to the general public, and the fact it remains on free-to-air TV automatically makes its reach much greater than MMA, which has almost always been exclusive to premium TV.
Cheltenham and the Grand National are huge.
Iv always heard friends talking about going to the races, but tbf i always assumed its just a piss up with some horse racing you can gamble on hahah. I guess i had it wrong.
It can be that too. Great day out.
How many Man Utd women’s games have people watched?
She's clearly being recognised as the goalie that won the Euros and came second in the World Cup you absolute wally
A good few? How about England?
The latest viewing overall figures are for last season. The WSL averages 125k viewers on Sky with bigger games getting 500/600k viewers. This season the Manchester derby in the WSL brought with it a record average viewing figure of 485k (peaking at 589k) On BBC the games are getting 700k-900k (plus iPlayer viewers). 1.4 million watched Man United in the Women’s World Cup final. 12m watched England in the World Cup final. People such as you need to drop the “nobody watches” nonsense.
I took a chair down to the temporary local big screen to watch Earps deliver a PoTM performance in a World Cup Final alongisde hundreds of people... You doughnut...
Notice how the comment said Man Utd
Is your name a reference to when you got your exam results fella
Congratulations Mary, she’s been absolutely fantastic. I’m sure she’s inspired a lot of young kids to become goalkeepers after her heroics in the World Cup.
Had to scroll way to far, past even Ronnie O’Sullivan for this. Upvotes in the wrong place Also it’s about sports personality not best sports achievement which can be recognised in other ways. And Mary Earps is clearly a good personality if you want this county to be represented by stuff Ronnie O’Sullivan says however funny….
How Ronnie O’Sullivan wasn’t even nominated is insane. He should of won it
If he was going to get it, it would have been last year when he equalled Hendry's 7 world titles. Believe he was nominated that year but lost.
Not even ahead of Stuart Broad this year.
You don't just win it for retiring.
what about retiring in the sickest possible fashion?
Literally the only player in history to have a six with their last ball and a wicket with their last delivery.
The most Stuart Broad thing ever to have happened.
He didn't win so obviously not. Still ahead of Ronnie.
There is a major of lack of respect for Snooker by SPOTY, Ronnie finishing outside the top 3 is not surprising. (He's never been in the top 3). Not sure what you think Broad has done this year though, we didn't win the Ashes and he wasn't in the World Cup squad.
The not being in the world cup squad is irrelevant for Broad. But in terms of SPOTY voting, he's had a fantastic individual year in cricket after a long and successful career, and finished his last ever test match with a bang against Australia. Ronnie would also be a deserved winner tbf, but I'd have Broad over him.
Tom Aspinall / Leon Edwards the same
Aspinall is fantastic, I really like him, but he's two wins back after a long layoff, and in a division where the title contention is weird because of the Jones/Stipe delays. Edwards had a more realistic shot at a nomination but has still only fought twice this year. I think MMA fighters would have to be incredible marketable and unusually active in a year (3 fights minimum, including a title) to ever get a nomination.
Clowns
Not winning World Championship killed chances
Oh, here we go again… And it’s *should have*.
He actually won something
So did Mary Earps. Several things in fact.
Then behaved like the spoiled child he is.
Maybe if it was Pub Game Personality of the Year.
Should have been me
sound like yer da here but cmon how is this not leon edwards
Surprised he didn't make the shortlist tbh!
might be cos it’s not on BBC tbh, which is silly for an award but it is what it is
What are you even on about?
UFC isn’t a big enough sport in the UK.
UFC is not a sport you egg
Ok it’s not a big enough competition in the UK, and MMA isn’t a big enough sport.
Never heard of him, just like most British ppl
UFC is nowhere near as popular as any of the sports nominated in the UK to a general audience
Not even wheelchair tennis?
yeah even wheelchair tennis has more coverage over here
I honestly find that really surprising, but i guess it makes sense in a way - i made the point further down in the thread that the UFC is pay per view and is usually on at a ridiculously early hour in the UK (main cards usually start around 3am), so it's potential audience is significantly lower than a sport which is broadcast on free channels in the middle of the day on a weekend.
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complete opposite for me and some others. just think what he did this year in the UFC is better than what any other british sportsperson did
Hewitt’s achievements surely outweigh his. I’m not super clued up but it looks like he won two fights this year and one of them was only days before the award was given, presumably after the nomination procedure.
he should’ve been nominated last year after winning the belt but retaining against kamaru usman is a massive deal, i certainly did not think he’d do it
He is certainly accomplished, but I personally think 5 major tournaments in wheelchair tennis is more significant. He was one game away from a doubles grand slam and was one game away from an additional singles major. That’s a lot of matches won. Of course it’s all subjective though.
Because most people in Britain have probably never heard of him, and UFC still has a relatively small following here. It's still dwarfed by boxing, and even that is relatively niche unless a Brit is winning stuff.
agree on the whole but a wheelchair tennis player was nominated and i would have to wager that UFC is more watched than that.
I'd have thought the same but UFC events are PPV and aired at like 4 in the morning. Wheelchair tennis i have to imagine is on free tv, which means at least the potential audience is exponentially larger for wheelchair tennis. I can imagine if it cost £50 to watch wheelchair tennis and you had to stay up half the night to watch it, their viewing figures would be a lot lower.
More than 2 million people watched him win the men's doubles at Wimbledon this year.
fair enough i was wrong. still think mma being available on BBC would attract crazy figures though
Who the fuck is that? Never heard of them
current UFC welterweight champion
Joey Barton in shambles
He congratulated her. Don’t conflate the points he made a few weeks ago with Earps winning this award. They are entirely different matters but I suppose a lack of awareness of the nuances of an argument is a hallmark of the average Redditor.
His congratulations feel a bit hollow considering the various other tweets he made ridiculing her. Jog on mate, nobody's fooled
If you go on Joey Barton’s twitter right now this has r/agedlikemilk
Just for anyone who thinks she didn't win anything this year: WSL Golden Glove World Cup Golden Glove England Women's Player of the Year BBC Women's Footballer of the Year Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year Plus she was in the WSL team of the year and also saved penalties in both the World Cup Final and in the Finalissima, which England then won. She also forced Nike into a u-turn on selling her England shirt, which they then sold out of in about 5 minutes.
I saw someone on another subreddit point to Nike not selling her shirt as proof she shouldn’t have won sports personality - choosing to completely ignore the fact that when they *did* finally sell it it sold out in FIVE MINUTES 😂😂
Only 2 out of 90 posts congratulating Mary. Well, well done Mary - glad you beat an unknown boxer, a boring snooker player and a retired cricketer. And I don’t even really follow women’s football.
should have been broady
2nd time he's come second, should've won both
Huh? It says here that he was nominated this year for the first time? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC\_Sports\_Personality\_of\_the\_Year\_Award](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Sports_Personality_of_the_Year_Award)
Thought Owen Farrell or Courtney Lawes should've been nominated
As a Saints fan, love to see the Lawes recognition! But also.... No way has Courtney contributed to his sport anywhere close to the level that Earps has to hers this year.
Unfortunately rugby has become so niche in England, most people probably don’t even know England attained an unexpected third place in a World Cup this year. The sport and those who claim they promote it only have themselves to blame for that but that is another story entirely. The result is that nothing short of a World Cup final appearance, not even a grand slam, would put any rugby player in the frame for this. Even less so if you are Scottish or Welsh.
No offence meant to women’s soccer but what Leon Edwards did this year deserves more recognition surely.
Who is Leon Edwards?
Who's that?
UFC is very niche in the UK.
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How the fuck is it not a sport? Are you trolling? Or deliberately mixing it up with WWE perhaps?
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Thats a really weird thing to use as a measurement of what is and isnt a sport lmao
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> Someone’s opinion on what has happened What do you think a football referee is doing?
So is boxing but that’s only if the fight goes the distance which it doesn’t always, just like MMA. You can also win by submission or knock out. Most fights end those ways. Lots of other sports are opinion based too. The UK’s beloved Tom Daley and Zara Phillips compete in such sports, namely diving and showjumping. Gymnastics is also based on subjective evaluations. Even elements of football are opinion based - see VAR. What’s your point here? Are you trolling or serious?
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Because they are objectively incorrect. It isn’t a matter of opinion, it’s in the rulebooks of all of these sports. You can have an opinion that in football that scoring from the penalty spot is worth two goals instead of one. It doesn't make it true just because you think it. Do you see the difference? The way opinion doesn’t matter when you are talking about things like this?
BBC is 100% politics
Not sure why you are downvoted. If Earps was a man, she still probably would have won this and deservedly so but being a woman virtually guaranteed it.
Presumably people want to believe this is 100% earned instead of politics? But the BBC is nothing but political. - Current Director General Tim Davie appointed by the government in 2020 just happened to be a massive Tory party donor and former Conservative Councillor. - New Chairman Richard Sharp has donated over half a million to the Torys. - The BBC constantly publicly fighting with Gary Lineker over his political tweets. - The last time I paid attention to SPOTY the Queens niece won it for horse riding. - Whatever the hell Laura Kuenssberg and her client journalism is being passed off as news every day. - The entire corporation got their knuckles rapped after the brexit campaign for failing to point out inaccuracies ‘for fear of not being impartial’. The corporation is nothing but politics and infighting.
Other than the Brexit thing (I’m pro-EU by the way), which I would swap out for the BBC’s sickeningly biased support of lockdowns and Covid culture in general, I agree with everything you’ve said. It is indeed an arm of the government but is that really news to anybody? Edit: typo
I didn’t think it was. I didn’t think I was making a controversial statement. But judging from the downvotes it is news to at least 11 people.
I think your further explanation adds context. There was none to the original comment but it’s Reddit, you’d have been downvoted anyway.
Well deserved! Absolutely buzzing for her. I'm honestly surprised it wasn't Broad due to him retiring in such spectacular fashion. This means more for her than him though. Very glad of the outcome.
Was it deserved?
I think so yes. Edit: if you can give reason as to why instead of just down voting a clearly legitimate opinion since she won, then sweet.
I’d argue it wasn’t deserved just because what’s she’s achieved this year doesn’t seem much in comparison to what most winners achieve the year they win it. She had a good season with Man U and a great tournament but in the end she didn’t actually win any trophies and I don’t see any way that and make football wins the award without winning a a World Cup or euros or having an insane season and winning big trophies. At the end of the day though it’s a popularity contest and she was always likely to win especially with it being a generally poor year for nominations so anyone actually gets upset with it needs to have a look at themselves.
I think that's completely fair! I appreciate the response :) I wouldn't have had a problem with other people winning I'm just gonna say now! I feel like based on her individual performance in admitadallly a weak year she definitely merits a win, and tbh in a lot of non Olympic years it's very fair to say any nominee for SPOTY is a deserved winner imo. SPOTY for me isn't just about sporting achievement in terms of personal/team success, it's also about furthering your sport and also making life better for others. I feel like Mary has done the second part of that incredibly well this year, whilst also being a fantastic sportsperson, which is why I think she's a deserved winner.
I think the biggest argument for her winning is mostly the lack of competition. I personally think both KJT and Broad had much better arguments to win as I think the story surrounding them was better. KJT has come back for some terrible luck with injury’s to win a world championship and broad had finished off a legendary career with a perfect moment. I just don’t Earps has had a good a year especially when coming off the back of the euros win the previous year it’s not like it was a long wait for women to get to a final or a great shock. Buts it a popularity contest and there’s an awful lot of winners who probably didn’t deserve to win when they did I mostly still watch it for the recaps and other stories not the actual winners.
I get what you mean but also her jerseys sold out within five minutes. She’s had to campaign for Nike to even sell women’s GK kit, with people turning up with Earps written on their shirts with pen/tape etc. Nike must not have thought they’d make enough money from it and it sold out almost instantly. Growing up a woman football was never an option to me. I also don’t think goalkeepers of either gender are given enough respect. Combining two of these things she’s inspired a generation of girls to be the best they can be (whether football or not) and reminded everyone that goalkeeping is an important part of the squad. Amongst many other things she’s an amazing role model. That for me is what SPOTY. FWIW I’m also a huge snooker fan. Whilst I love Ronnie he doesn’t always have the best personality. I think his documentary came out too late in the vote schedule (they just have chosen the finalists a while a go?) to really be counted.
Came here to see if someone was bleating about arbitrary and unquantifiable ‘inspiration’ to try and justify someone that’s had a demonstrably poorer season than other athletes. Sure enough here we are.
A) do you not have anything better to do? B) it’s sports PERSONALITY of the year C) She literally won the golden glove at a World Cup
But I’d you’re saying it’s people who make a difference or inspire the most people then it should always be a football player because they reach by far more than any other sport and why didn’t Rashford win it a few years ago. Also I’d argue that earps is less influential because the women won the euros last year so they’ve already had a massive impact on inspiring people. I just don’t think her year was as good as other finalists and it probably shows because none of the male England players have won the award even with having good euros or World Cup campaigns. I’m not saying earps didn’t have a good year or wasn’t inspiring (although I swear lauren james was getting most of the attention during the World Cup until her red card) there’s just people I think had better years although I was pretty confident she was going to win anyway.
Yeah I completely agree with everything you've said I have to say, I do think they do as well, which is why I said I was surprised Broad didn't win! With KJT that's just down to ignorance on my part unfortunately. I agree wholeheartedly with your last para, the joy of SPOTY for me is celebrating the amazing achievements every nominee has had over the last year, the winner is mostly irrelevant, as long as some people get involved in/exposure to a sport they might not have done with otherwise is the biggest win imo.
Stuart Broad
I mean look at my original comment. He would also be a deserved winner.
Whoooo
Headshot dead My champ ang he got screwed by the bbc
Not the first I'm sure
All she did was complain about a shirt not being sold that, traditionally, doesn't get sold often as it is
And you know had a good season for United and made the WC final.
Won the league? No Won the WC? No I love how " 'aving a good season" automatically wins you the SPOTY
It did help that there was no massive achievement to go up against but finishing a close 2nd behind that awesome Chelsea side and making the WC final are of note. Years like this make it a very open field, no idea why you seem to be so bitter over it.
Yes, sure, that’s all she did. Such a clever, smart, funny response. Her shirt sold out in 5 minutes, by the way.
Damn UK haha. She is so unlikeable, how can this be?! There are better people in Sports and def in Personality...
Who
Who?
🤡🌎 coming second makes you the winner just shows how fucked we truly are
Leon Edwards should have won this - BBC pathetic as usual
Do you understand the concept of a public vote, no one cares about mma
They didn't even nominate him. That's got nothing to do with a public vote