The row over sexist comments made by SKY television pundits has grown exponentially with Rio Ferdinand siding with the girls.
|||London – A row has broken out about the role of women in English football after two of the country's leading TV commentators were recorded off-microphone making sexist remarks about two female 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 the appointment of Sian Massey 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 as well as a column written by Brady in the Sun newspaper that day.
The comments were leaked to a British newspaper, leaving Gray and Keys – who have privately apologised to their employers – open to heavy abuse from social commentators, discrimination groups and football players among others.
Piara Powar, executive director of Football Against Racism in Europe, a group working with European governing body Uefa to end discrimination in football, said the remarks were “medieval in tone” and demonstrated the “appalling and damaging sexist attitudes” that still existed in the sport.
The English Football Association gave its “wholehearted and continuing support” to female referees while England defender Rio Ferdinand was one of the many Twitter users to register his displeasure with Gray and Keys.
“What's wrong with a woman being an official in a football game? I'm cool with it,” Ferdinand posted.
Gray and Keys, sitting in a gantry in Wolves' Molineux Stadium before and during the Wolves-Liverpool game, 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.
In fact, the 25-year-old Massey got arguably the biggest call of the game correct, adjudging Raul Meireles to be marginally onside when the Liverpool midfielder ran onto a deep pass before squaring the ball for Fernando Torres to open the scoring in the 36th minute. Liverpool won the game 3-0.
Massey is one of 853 females officiating in English football, from grass-roots level up to the Premier League (levels 1-8).
Amy Fearn last year became the first woman to referee a second-tier League Championship 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.
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.
Brady said Monday in the Guardian it was “absolutely abhorrent that gender is the only consideration when talking about female officials”.
In a statement released by Sky Sports, the broadcast said the comments made by Gray and Keys were “not acceptable”.
“They were not made on air but we have spoken to Richard and Andy and told them our views and they have apologised and expressed their regret,” the statement read.
The FA said all its female officials were “fantastic ambassadors” for football, adding the organisation “will continue to offer every encouragement to all officials within the football family to progress to the highest levels possible”.
Powar urged Sky to take action against Gray and Keys.
“It is unacceptable that two of British football's biggest names are heard espousing views, whether intended for broadcast or not, that undermine and disparage the efforts of women in the game,” he said in a statement.
The Sky Sports pair are not the first commentators to be caught making inappropriate remarks thinking they were off-camera
In 2004, former Manchester United manager Ron Atkinson racially insulted Chelsea defender Marcel Desailly when commentating on a Champions League match in 2004. Atkinson was later forced to resign, acknowledging his comments were “obviously unacceptable”. – Sapa-AP
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/sexism-row-grows-as-tv-pundits-lay-low-1.1016326
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