GK Barry and Ella Rutherford’s Women’s League Cup draw has been criticised after the pair made lesbian jokes and acted unprofessionally throughout.

The TikTok influencer, real name Grace Keeling, and her footballer girlfriend, who plays for Portsmouth, conducted the draw on Tuesday (25 November). Keeling was tasked with pulling the balls out of a bag, while Rutherford informed viewers of which teams had been drawn. 

At one point, Keeling accidentally put a ball that had already been pulled back into the bag. “Am I allowed to do that? I’ve done it now, it’s too late. Oh I picked up the same ball,” she said. 

Online viewers were also quick to hit out at the influencer for looking in the bag before pulling out balls. 

But the duo’s execution of the draw, which took place on the Women’s Super League (WSL) TikTok page, courted further controversy after Keeling made a number of lesbian jokes, including a comment about “lesbians handling balls”.

The social media star also recited the start of an anti-Tottenham chant after drawing Spurs out of the bag. “What do we think of Tottenham?” she said. It is understood that WSL Football has issued an apology to Tottenham Hotspur.

Keeling didn’t stop there, as she ended the draw with an innuendo about the competition sponsor Subway’s footlong sandwiches. “Even if you’re a lesbian, get a footlong,” she said. 

Viewers were not happy with the pair’s performance. One wrote of Keeling’s involvement, which was intended to attract a younger audience: “This is just embarrassing to watch, a tournament draw taken place on TikTok by some influencer no one has heard of.” 

“Women working hard to get the WSL noticed then you have these clowns undoing all the hard work,” another viewer wrote. 

“There’s a time and place for banter in football but cup draws isn’t it. This will only give people who don’t take the women’s game seriously more fuel,” someone else wrote of the draw. 

A fan of Keeling wrote: “I like GK Barry as a content creator but she has made an absolute mockery of women’s football there. So disappointing seeing so much of this stuff happening around the women’s game. What a bad few months.” 

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