LENNART JOHANSSON, the President of Uefa, European football’s governing body, hit back at suggestions that he was “sexist” last night after he claimed that companies could exploit the sight of “sweaty, lovely-looking” women players. Speaking exclusively to The Times, Johansson emphasised that his comments had been taken out of context and that he treated the women’s game with “just as much respect” as the men’s.

Sepp Blatter caused outrage in January last year when he called for women footballers to play in “tighter shorts” to create a “more female aesthetic”, but Johansson said that that was not the way to promote the women’s game and admitted to being “upset” that people were now comparing his comments to those of the Fifa President.

“All I was saying is that women are more marketable than men,” Johansson said. “This is a group of people and a sport that should be and could be very well-supported. The PR for the women’s game could be done a little differently and they could benefit from that.

“I come from a country that introduced ladies’ football 20 years ago. Norway and Sweden started the whole thing, so we take it very seriously. I’m not a sexist. The women’s game should be treated just as seriously as the men’s game.”

Johansson said that companies could “make use of” the sight of women footballers “playing on the ground, sweating, with the rainy weather and coming out of the dressing-room, lovely-looking. It would sell.” But, speaking in Manchester after a meeting of the Uefa executive committee, he insisted that his comments had been misconstrued and was critical of the British media.

“In this country, I’m not surprised my comments have been taken the wrong way,” he said. “I would have been best- advised not talking to them at all because they seem to do what they like.

“All I was saying is that the women’s game must understand that they need sponsoring and publicity and positive results. Even if women, like men, are playing a match and sweating and it’s raining, when they come out of the dressing-room they are still ladies and they have different products that they can sell. I would never want to upset or criticise the women’s game.”

The executive committee was meeting at the City of Manchester Stadium to discuss a new strategy for the future of European football. Chief among its discussions was the increasingly controversial issue of player, club and crowd discipline. Johansson said that it had got to the stage where football’s governing bodies needed to come down more severely on misbehaviour and said that it was “very possible” that clubs could have points deducted on a more regular basis where there has been a serious breach of discipline.

“We should have a number of different punishments that we can use in situations where violence, bribery and misbehaviour tends to rise,” he said. “We have to be prepared for it. The administration has listened to the executive committee and what they have to say and we are taking those discussions on board.

“A fine now might not be a great enough punishment, that is why we are discussing the issue of points being deducted. Ten years ago it was never discussed, but things have changed. We have to consider it and we are going to consider it.”

Johansson said that Uefa would also consider the possibility of deducting points in situations where players’ behaviour had spiralled out of control. Lee Bowyer, the Newcastle United midfield player, was recently fined £228,000 by the club and banned for seven matches and fined a further £30,000 by the FA after an on-pitch brawl with Kieron Dyer, his team-mate. While not referring directly to that incident, it was one of several examples that Johansson is understood to have been referring to in which a club could have points deducted.

“We have to work on what makes sense,” he said. “It’s no good just saying we are going to deduct six points here and six points there. We must have some sort of organised thinking.

“There is no single case where we can say for definite that, yes, this many points should be deducted. We have to create guidelines for the disciplinary bodies to give them an input and idea of what is needed.”

Uefa will meet again in September, when the discussions will be formulated.

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