UEFA chief sweating as women cry foul

LENNART JOHANSSON, the most powerful man in European football, was criticised yesterday after suggesting the women’s game should promote itself by using players’ looks.

Speaking just two days before the Euro 2005 women’s final, the UEFA president said: “There are so many companies that could make use of the fact that you can see the girl playing on the ground, sweaty, in the rainy weather, and coming out of the dressing room, lovely-looking. That would sell.”

UEFA have tried to mount a damage-limitation exercise saying Johansson was merely trying to suggest women could use their image in a similar way to David Beckham.

But Leeds and England winger Sue Smith said: “People will be upset because you want people to watch us for football reasons not aesthetic reasons.

“People have to appreciate us from a football point of view and come to see us because of the way we play rather than the way we look.”