The Football Writer’s Association voted Manchester City’s Nikita Parris as Player of the Year, beating Vivianne Miedema by one vote in what is surely one of the biggest jokes of the season.

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Voted Player of the Year by her fellow professionals but that’s not good enough for the male-dominated sports writer’s association who opted for Nikita Parris instead

Ask anyone who follows women’s’ football, even casually, and they will tell you that Vivianne Miedema has been in a league of her own this season.

Collecting the league title on Sunday, she was then named PFA Player of the Year (and they spelled her name wrong on the trophy), but when it came to the award handed out by sports journalists, they opted for Nikita Parris in a farcical decision.

Of course, this probably shouldn’t surprise us.

Journalists from the Daily Mail were allowed to vote for this award yet they couldn’t even bring themselves to do a match report on Arsenal’s title-winning game. They also ignored Chelsea’s game in the Champions League semi-finals against Lyon.

They did manage to pen 28 words about Michael Oliver’s wife refereeing Brighton v Arsenal, but that was it. This was the entirety of their coverage of women’s football in the paper on Monday from Sunday when five WSL games were played, 5 Championship games and two Champions League semis were played:

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The entirety of the Daily Mail coverage of Arsenal’s title-winning game

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Yet these are the people given a vote.

Miedema has scored 20 goals in 17 league games this season, nine goals in eight cup games giving her a total of 29 goals in 25 games.

Parris, who is three years older than Miedema, has 24 goals in 29 games and no league title.

https://twitter.com/leahsjord/status/1122793365773352961

This is only the second time the FWA have voted for a female Player of the year in an industry still dominated by male sportswriters, some of whom hold less than savoury views of the women’s game.

Last year, they voted England international, Fran Kirby of Chelsea, top.