Clive Tyldesley believes there will be an “organic progression” of football fans’ attitudes towards female presenters, commentators and pundits and ultimately they will be judged purely on their ability.

Tyldesley, who was ITV’s senior commentator from 1998 to 2020, thinks there are plenty of examples of women within sports broadcasting, such as Gabby Logan, Hazel Irvine and Robyn Cowen, who are already so accomplished their sex has ceased to be a consideration.

Former Manchester City midfielder Joey Barton has been heavily critical of women being part of the presenting, punditry and commentary line-ups in men’s football, but Tyldesley is confident attitudes are shifting.

“Football moves forward at its own pace and I think football fans treat advances of any kind with a certain amount of scepticism,” he told the PA news agency.

“So the more female voices that we hear around football, the more accustomed we will become to them.

“Nobody thinks of Gabby Logan or Hazel Irvine as female broadcasters, they think of them as outstanding broadcasters. And I think it’s almost an organic progression where the familiarity with the excellence of people’s performance starts to override any other considerations that you may have.

“When you hear somebody as capable and as considered as Robyn Cowen, I would defy anybody to argue that she’s not one of the best 10 commentators working on television.

“I’m judging her by her content, by her rhythm, by her insight, by the accuracy of her work, by her vocabulary and I see qualities in her that I don’t see in probably the majority of male commentators in my estimation. But it’s not because she’s a woman, it’s because she’s a good commentator.

“I think that organically, the more we become accustomed to seeing and hearing female voices and faces around football, the more accepting we will become and then we’ll start to have our opinions as to whether they’re good, bad or indifferent.”

Tyldesley and former England striker Darren Bent visited Bushey and Oxhey FC in Watford in the summer to provide a commentary on a match between its under-sevens and those of another local team, Garston Ladies FC, to promote the Football Association’s Silent Support weekend on November 15-16.

On that weekend, parents are asked to refrain from cheering and shouting and restrict themselves to clapping in an effort to let young players find their voice on the pitch and make their own decisions.

Like commentators, Tyldesley believes parents at grassroots football need to think about what they say and when they say it.

“If there is a lesson to learn from commentators, it is what my great mentor in broadcasting, the late Reg Gutteridge, used to say – make every word count,” he said.

“And part of that is not saying anything from time to time. Reg was very quick to remind me that that’s not resting time, that’s thinking time.

“There is a lesson there, I think, for parents and for those watching junior football. Those words that you shout instinctively, encouragingly most of the time are possibly out of frustration.

“They’re not only landing on young ears, they’re landing on the ears of the referee, who is often at that level only 14 or 15 years of age themselves, and they’re landing on the ears of the coaches who are investing an awful lot of time in trying to foster the right kind of culture around their teams.

“Think, as a commentator has got to do, whether the words on the tip of your tongue are appropriate and if they’re going to have the impact that you want them to have.”

Clive Tyldesley is raising awareness of The Football Association’s Silent Support Weekend. For more information, please visit https://www.englandfootball.com/participate/behaviour/Silent-Support.