‘Worst cup draw ever’ – Concerns have been raised over a lack of professionalism and legitimacy as the WSL say sorry to clubs.
The draw was made for the Women’s League Cup quarter-final and semi-final, hosted live on WSL Football’s TikTok by influencer GK Barry and her partner Ella Rutherford, a Portsmouth player.
But it sparked controversy with social media influencer GK Barry making lewd jokes and an anti-Tottenham remark while drawing Spurs’ ball, refereeing to the chant sung by Arsenal fans “what do we think of Tottenham?”.
She joked about “lesbians handling balls” at the beginning of the draw, spoke of sponsor Subway’s footlong sandwiches by saying “Even if you’re a lesbian, get a footlong” and hit the bag of balls against her bum, saying “Give it a shake, a spank for good luck.”
After the disaster of Sky Sports Halo 🤦🏻♂️
WSL Football has been asked for the footage from the Womens League Cup QF/SF draw due to concerns over the process of the draw 🤦🏻♂️
Is this really the way for women’s football to be taken seriously? Feels like one step forward, two back 🤦🏻♂️ pic.twitter.com/6ryYAkiHfG
— FWSL Jono (Aerial Fantasy) (@FWSL_Jono) November 25, 2025
Then viewers made “fix” claims, after she picked pick out a numbered ball before accidentally dropping a ball back into the bag and re-drew it, while determining the first of two semi-finals. Organisers insist it was the same ball and the draw was valid. An adjudicator was present and confirmed she did in fact retrieve the same ball that she initially pulled out. Had it not been, the draw would’ve had to be redone.
GK Barry, who also said how the process worked, added: “Am I allowed to do that?” “I’ve done it now, it’s too late,” then pulled the same number out and said: “Oh, I picked up the same ball.”
She acknowledged a number of times that she was anything but a football expert, didn’t know how the draw worked, and asked which colour Liverpool and Chelsea played in.
One club who were involved in the draw, has formally requested footage, which has not been provided. BBC Sport were told by WSL Football Sport that the draw carried adverts and was broadcast as a TikTok live, making it also not available to watch on its YouTube channel. WSL is also said to have apologised to Tottenham.
Women’s League Cup Quarter-final draw
Liverpool v Chelsea
Crystal Palace v Arsenal
Manchester United v Tottenham
West Ham v Manchester City
Women’s League Cup Semi-final draw
Crystal Palace or Arsenal v Manchester United or Tottenham
West Ham or Manchester City v Liverpool or Chelsea
Quarter-finals ties will be played between the 19th and 21st of December with the semis on the 21st and 22nd of January 2026.
There was also an issue on Monday when a YouTube stream for the Women’s FA Cup third-round draw was broadcast without sound because of technical problems. The television broadcast of it on TNT Sports didn’t suffer the same fate.
Those tuning in on YouTube were unable to listen to the presenter and the interviews from Oxford United, where the draw took place.
Some clubs understand the attempt to target younger audiences by using a trendy platform and personality for the draw, but are unhappy at how it played out.
Here’s how fans reacted to the ‘worst cup draw ever’ with concerns raised over the lack of professionalism as the WSL say sorry to clubs…
@dj_LCL: I’m sorry but she’s clearly looking in the bag at the balls for first one and hesitates. How do we know for sure she didn’t just pick that one ball?
@warsawwhite: It honestly couldn’t be worse even if they got Bonnie Blue to do this
@alimullaley: Oh FFS! This is appalling. Stop with the stupid gimmicks.
@colin_11776: This has to be a wind up. No way that’s a real draw for a professional competition
@Shaun_Wren: You would’ve thought after Englands Euro win and seeing England win the Rugby World Cup, people would’ve taken women’s sport more seriously but for the own organisation to fuck it up this bad! Senior heads need to roll for this & let this be a lesson of stop involving influencers
@RobertR61157686: Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to have a “social media influencer” and her girlfriend doing the draw? An insult to female footballers of all ages and their clubs.
@stevecrab: This is awful. They are awful. Genuinely seen raffles drawn one of my local off-licences on Instagram come across better than this.
@Mark_cobbler: That’s not professional what so ever. How can you even call that a draw when she’s looking in the bag
@HamdonMart: I’m a massive fan of the women’s game and the advances it has made in recent seasons. Have been to 100+ games since 2017/18 season. However, this is, at best shoddy and cheap and at worst, opens up questions of fairness. Looking into the bag before drawing balls? Really? Poor!
@iiaiiix6: Why @BarclaysWSL @premierleague @Carabao_Cup are you getting youtubers to do everything in football? The vast majority of people don’t know who they are. This is embarrassing for the womens game.
@KCCOvilla88: This is actually embarrassing womans sport will never be taken seriously with 💩 like this happening and just a couple weeks after that condescending mess of sky halo what an embarrassing month for womans football
@meggaherne: Yeah no. This isn’t a good look. Yes they can have fun doing it and I like them both but I don’t think it was a good idea, guessing whoever decided thought it would bring more views which it has but not in a good way.
@megr_45: This is the exact reason womens football will never be taken seriously. What an embarrassment 🙄
Need to get Rod on board I think pic.twitter.com/LFQ4VpMff6
— JackMcKnight (@E93Jack) November 26, 2025
Seriously. This was the farce that produced our away draw with Man Utd?
How hard is it to find someone who can do inane but informed chat while pulling balls out of a bag? A draw just needs to be transparent and unbiased. Not a high bar yet @BarclaysWSL again failing to reach it https://t.co/RDszglsx5H pic.twitter.com/uL97PLOcCE
— SpursWomen Blog (@spurswomenblog) November 26, 2025
