Reid is renowned as a champion for women's sport, and particularly soccer, pushing for equality in every role she's held as an administrator.

However her response to a tweet about Bayern Munich signing Adelaide United's teenage striker Nestory Irankunda drew some criticism.

A journalist calling Irankunda the "next big thing in Australia football", led to Reid replying on Twitter: "Bigger than Kerr or other Matildas or just next big thing in *men's football?"

Retired Matildas striker De Vanna, who played at four World Cups, won the 2010 Asian Cup and claimed four A-League championships with four different clubs, took issue with Reid.

"Does it really matter!" De Vanna, a former United player herself, said.

"Yep, language matters, especially when it comes to gender #CorrectTheInternet," Reid replied.

But De Vanna, who is the third-highest capped Matilda and was only recently overtaken by Sam Kerr as the Matildas' leading goal-scorer, was not impressed.

"Heather come on stop trying to hijack the narrative. Football we are all one and football is for everyone. Who give a shit if you have a dick or fanny. How's that for language!" she said.

The exchange came a week after the conversation about language in sport sparked up again in cricket over legendary former Australian women's skipper Belinda Clark.

It was pointed out Glenn Maxwell's iconic 201 not-out at the Cricket World Cup against Afghanistan was incorrectly being promoted as the highest score by an Australian in a one-day international, while Clark had actually scored 229 against Denmark back in 1997.

A similar example took place in 2017 at Wimbledon when Andy Murray corrected journalists who proclaimed Sam Querrey was the "first US player" to reach a grand slam semi-final since 2009, ignoring several female Americans who had done so in that time-frame.

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