Former culture secretary Dame Tessa Jowell has criticised Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore after a number of emails he sent to colleagues containing sexist slurs were leaked to the press.
Scudamore, who has regularly championed equality for women in football, apologised on Sunday after the emails were leaked to The Mirror by his PA.
"His championing of women's football, and women's football coming of age, is undermined by this," Jowell told BBC Sportsweek.
"You can't have one position publicly and then be laughing privately. In the world of social media and email, there is no public and private. I think what Richard needs to reflect on, and I think he's a decent man, is the disconnect between what he thinks privately and what he has tried to achieve publicly.
"I hope his public commitment to women's sport will prevail. He's shown contrition and will be mortified by this, as indeed he should be."
Scudamore has been chief executive of the Premier League since 1999.
