Stags chief defends husband sponsor over '˜call girl' slur

Carolyn (pictured top), whose husband John owns The Stags and club sponsor One Call Insurance, has stepped into the row after fans slammed glamour girls wearing skin-tight, low-cut tops at games to promote the company as “sexist.”

She has denied accusations from supporters that the club’s use of promotional workers - known as “One Call Girls” was effectively referring to them as “call girls,” or prostitutes, insisting that it was just a “play on words” and had nothing to do with prostitution.

The row erupted after Mansfield tweeted pictures and messages ahead of last Tuesday night’s Checkatrade Trophy game with Doncaster Rovers, saying that the girls would be handing out tokens for free beer.

However, Lisa Clarke, from the No More Page 3 campaign, said she believed the tweet’s wording was “intentional” and that it was wrong to make light of prostitution.

She said: “I refuse to think for one minute the board didn’t think about the second meaning of that name [One Call Girls]. “Prostitution, sex work, is a massive issue... it’s generally surrounded by poverty [and] by exploitation.”

The women are frequently seen at Mansfield’s ground and Rovers’ Keepmoat Stadium in tight Lycra cat suits with the sponsor’s name emblazoned across their chests.

Mrs Radford said the promotional staff also work at the company headquarters at Black Back in Doncaster.

She said the tweets should have included the word “insurance” and this is where the controversy has stemmed from. She said: “[My husband’s] company has no connotations whatsoever to do with prostitution.

“We’re not trying to demean women, we’ve never had this issue before and the girls have been doing incredible work.

“They actually enjoy it and they say they get a little bit of confidence... they want to do it.”

She argued that a number of other sports use women in promotion work.

“Do we just sit down and watch the game and be quiet?” she said. “Or can we have more of a role in football?”

But Twitter users were unimpressed by connotations surrounding the “call girls” phrase and have branded the club “pathetic”, “chauvinistic” and “sexist.”

One user Matthew Gooding tweeted: “‘One Call Girls’. Stay classy Mansfield.”

Thom Airs put: “One Call Girls’?! As in call girls, as in prostitutes?! Christ.” While another Phil Rolls wrote: “You don’t see any problem with this? On any level?” And Jamie Ross commented: “Maybe Mansfield Town football club didn’t properly think through the name ‘One Call Girls’.” The club attempted to play down the row by tweeting: “For clarity, as our fans are aware, the ‘One Call Girls’ is a byname given to the marketing promoters at One Call Insurance, our sponsors.”