English commentators embroiled in sexism row
LONDON – TWO of Britain’s leading football commentators were reprimanded by their TV network and taken off the air on Monday after making sexist remarks off-microphone about two female match officials and West Ham executive Karren Brady.
Andy Gray and Richard Keys came under fire from all angles on Monday for their derogatory comments about Sian Massey’s suitability as a lineswoman for the Premier League match between Wolverhampton and Liverpool, a game they were presenting for Sky Sports on Saturday.
The pair, respected voices in football for the past 20 years, also criticised the ability of female former Premier League official Wendy Toms and a column written by Brady in the Sun newspaper that day.
Sitting in a gantry in Wolves’ Molineux Stadium before and during the Wolves-Liverpool game, Gray and Keys, thought their microphones were switched off when they questioned whether Massey knew the offside rule. Keys, who has worked for Sky since 1990, said he could ‘guarantee’ Massey was going to make a big mistake in the match.
Keys added that the game had ‘gone mad’ by allowing a woman to run the line and Gray, a former Scotland striker who is Sky’s leading commentator and pundit, made an abusive reference to Toms, saying she had been ‘hopeless’.
Toms was the first female to officiate in the Premier League, as a lineswoman. She is no longer an active referee. Keys then directed his criticism toward Brady, who in her column had written about her experiences of sexual discrimination in the football media. ‘See charming Karren Brady this morning complaining about sexism? Yeah. Do me a favour, love,’ Keys said. — AP
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