Third Sky pundit taken off air

Sky Sports have taken a third member of their commentary team off air after he, too, was found to be making sexist remarks.

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London – British broadcaster Sky Sports disciplined a third member of its football commentary team on Tuesday for making sexist remarks about a female match official.

Pitch-side reporter Andy Burton was temporarily taken off air for describing lineswoman Sian Massey as a “bit of a looker” in leaked taped remarks made before Saturday's English Premier League match between Wolverhampton and Liverpool, in which she was officiating.

Burton was due to cover the League Cup semifinal between Birmingham and West Ham at St. Andrews on Wednesday, but Sky Sports confirmed he has been removed from duty.

Richard Keys and Andy Gray, the broadcaster's leading football commentators, were reprimanded and temporarily suspended on Monday for making sexist comments about Massey, plus female referee and West Ham executive Karren Brady.

They had been scheduled to front the Monday Night Football show, featuring the match between Bolton and Chelsea in the Premier League.

Burton, talking to Gray on the touchline at Molineux prior to kickoff on Saturday, said: “Apparently a female lino today, bit of a looker.”

Continuing to remark on Massey's appearance, Burton added that another member of the Sky Sports crew said Massey was “all right,” adding: “Now, I don't know if I should trust his judgment on that?”

The off-air comments were leaked to the media on Monday. Previous footage implicating Gray and Keys in the controversy had been passed to a Sunday newspaper.

Sky Sports was yet to confirm when the pair, which has fronted the broadcaster's football coverage for two decades, would be back on air.

Keys telephoned Massey on Monday, on behalf of him and Gray, to apologise for questioning her suitability as a lineswoman and whether she knew the offside rule, which was widely seen as a barometer of football knowledge.

Gray had also said Wendy Toms, a former referee, had been “hopeless” when she had been a lineswoman in the Premier League while Keys criticised Brady for writing in her column for the Sun newspaper that day about her experiences of sexual discrimination in the football media.

Keys and Gray, who were issued with a warning by Sky Sports, have yet to publicly apologize for their comments, which have been condemned by social commentators, discrimination groups and footballers and led to calls for them to resign.

Brady said the remarks made her “blood boil” and England captain Rio Ferdinand said the pair's views were “prehistoric.”

Massey will be running the line in Tuesday's fourth-tier match between Crewe and Bradford. – Sapa-AP

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/third-sky-pundit-taken-off-air-1.1016892

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