If you drew a Venn diagram of Emma Hayes’ critics and the fragile folk who cry “snowflake” about others, then congrats on drawing a circle.
The ex-Chelsea and current USA women’s coach is upsetting all the right people at this World Cup during her ITV punditry duties, reprising a role for which she first drew plaudits at Euro 2020.
It’s safe to say though not everyone is a fan. Earlier in the tournament, one of ITV’s videos on X, a mere snippet of Hayes’ analysis so far, prompted a flurry of negative replies. Two mentions of “kitchen”, one asking for “two sugars”, another yelling abuse through their keyboard that is not fit for publication. Seven profiles had either the England flag or Union Jack emoji in their handles or bios.
Meanwhile a Facebook post from a well-known outlet led to one hurling direct sexist abuse at Hayes, another began “not been sexist” – always a solid start, and that’s being you imbecile – before proceeding to say “if it was baking or gardening then I am all for free speech”.
Then, with Hayes analysing England’s match with Croatia during the drinks breaks on Wednesday night, an X post from Joey Barton’s podcast read, depressingly to no one’s surprise, “Give it a rest Emma love”.
Are you starting to get a picture of the people Hayes is rattling?
"There was something inside those players that wasn't going to let them yield today" Ange Postecoglou reflects on that historic performance from Cape Verde! pic.twitter.com/8lbmlyzauc
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 15, 2026For all the insight, the dozens of minutes spent before and after matches, the segments during half-time and now even the drinks breaks, one line from Hayes drew anger more than most, when she called Cape Verde’s draw with Spain a “victory for immigration”.
Keep politics out of football! That was the response from a tidal wave of Hayes’ haters, who could not see what immigration had to do with players born in the USA, Republic of Ireland, France, Netherlands and Portugal having a say in Cape Verde’s monumental point against the reigning European champions.
More than half of Cape Verde’s squad were born overseas. Six in Rotterdam alone. Utilising this diaspora – including a LinkedIn message to Dublin-born Roberto “Pico” Lopes, initially ignored because it was in Portuguese – is the only reason this tiny archipelago nation have reached their first World Cup.
Hayes was not even mentioning immigration impulsively. This was no agenda despite what some people would like to think, because what was probably missed by those criticising her was the fact she wasn’t the first to bring it up.
“Being able to repay the efforts of our grandparents and parents, who emigrated to give us a better future, sometimes even working two jobs at the same time, is the least we can do,” Cape Verde forward Dailon Livramento told The Guardian upon their qualification last year.
Cape Verde are a team proud of their various backgrounds (Photo: Getty)“We’re a product of immigration and our identity has to reflect that,” Cape Verde head coach Pedro Leitao Brito then said in ITV’s build-up to Monday’s match. “We have so many cultures at the same time. Our players are spread across every continent.”
Captain Ryan Mendes added: “We’ve now got this young generation of quality players from the diaspora whether that’s in the Netherlands, Portugal, France alongside those of us who were born in Cape Verde.”
FFS lads, leave it out, will you? I’m trying to watch the bloody football.
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Kevin Garside: ITV’s Lee Dixon is sucking the joy out of the World Cup Daniel Storey: My day with Iran fans ‘behind enemy lines’ at the World CupThen came her input against England. The optics were unhelpful, with the chalkboard not only tinpot, as if someone ran to the nearest shop when realising drinks breaks equals more studio time, but also rife for AI alterations – as some did when changing her tactical notes to shopping lists.
And while Roy Keane, Ian Wright and Gary Neville sat on the sofa, the ITV also positioned Hayes in a corner of their New York studio, which admittedly resembled a kitchen, and that only fed the trolls for an easy pile-on. It felt naive from ITV, hung Hayes out to dry, and surely is changed going forward at this World Cup. The i Paper has asked ITV for comment.
The fact Hayes must be used to this by now does not make it any less demoralising to witness the 100th time as it was the first, and the reason she is such a magnet for abuse is obvious.
The reality is that it hurts her opponents, not only realising this woman knows more than them about football, but because she has achieved more – Barton included – than they could have dreamt of in the game they adore.
So often the root cause of trolling, jealousy rarely looks uglier than when a sad man hides behind his phone.
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