“Do me a favour, love”

Three studio recordings, two sacked pundits and the re-emergence, once again, of sexism in football. Richard Keys and Andy Gray have paid the ultimate price for their off-air comments which are crudely being branded as ‘prehistoric banter’. Clips showing different degrees of chauvinism have been released, leading to public uproar over the behaviour of the two (now ex-) Sky Sports presenters.

The original issue revolved around comments made about female referee Sian Massey, as Keys and Gray suggested that she would have no grasp of the offside rule. The aggressive tone especially is something to notice, as if it was not quite as light-hearted as the pundits keep trying to make out. This clip also involved Lord Alan Sugar’s assistant, Karren Brady, as the two heavily criticised her remarks made in the Sun newspaper over apparent sexism she was encountering.

Although there are other videos at the centre of attention, showing more sexually orientated cheap laughs and gags, the conversation about Sian Massey is the most worrying. Keys and Gray, both at the top of their profession, and both with significant influence in English football, were implying that women were not fit to take an active role in the game. Were we naive enough to think sexism had disappeared? As Keys so delicately put it, “Urgh. The game’s gone mad.”

Three days after the incident Andy Gray was sacked by Sky Sports. Rightly so, most say, but there may be more to the story than meets the eye. Accusations of phone tapping have recently come to light surrounding Gray’s phone and the News of the World. With rumours that Gray is thinking about taking legal action surfacing, it may be seen as a little suspicious, seeing as Sky and the News of the World have the same owners, for him to have received the boot. These internal politics though are unlikely to come to light. However, on account of the evidence, there is no denying that he strongly deserved to have been fired for what he has been caught saying. His suggestive remarks towards fellow Sky Sports presenter Charlotte Jackson, where he asked if she would help him with his belt, are distasteful at the least.

Keys, on the other hand, has acted with a certain amount of regret and remorse. His personal apology to Sian Massey was apparently made on Sunday, not Monday evening as released, which shows he did have some idea of the scale of the situation. Just before resigning from his post at Sky Sports, an agitated, but nevertheless eloquent, Keys gave a public apology in an exclusive interview with TalkSport radio. The most frequent comment made was, “We were wrong. It was wrong”.

When listening to this interview, Keys comes across as an intelligent person, with no attraction to the limelight, with the sole aim of trying to push Sky Sports’ success to the maximum. He described how the events had unfolded, “24 hours passed, by which time the world had gone mad.” Other phrases he used included, “Lad’s mag humour” and “A little boisterous”, giving the impression he knew it was wrong, but felt it wasn’t necessarily out of place in the industry they were in. Unfortunately I agree in this case. It is unrealistic for people to presume the same sort of remarks are not present in a team’s dressing room. Perhaps their office was working on the ‘what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’ principle, but maybe that is the problem. Sky Sports has such a glamourous appeal to it these days, there may have been some people thinking they could get away with saying almost anything on air.

It is not the first time football pundits have got it wrong when thinking they were off-air. Ron Atkinson and Rodney Marsh are high profile examples. They used racist and tasteless remarks which resulted in both being sacked by their employers. Hopefully one day presenters will realise what they can and can’t say when a microphone is close.

Are there significant deeper and underlying problems in broadcasting? You would hope not. Keys was also caught commenting on one of Jamie Redknapp’s old girlfriends, in what can be seen as the most accurate use of ‘prehistoric banter’, and if there is any speculation about other probable recordings, Keys usefully announced on TalkSport, “if you dig far enough and deep enough you will find what you’re looking

for.”

So the fall from grace of Richard Keys and Andy Gray may go down as a warning for all up and coming broadcasters to keep their wits about them, but as Andy Gray’s loud Fifa 2010 commentary from my flatmate’s room suggests, these two are unlikely to be out of the footballing world for too long. Let this episode be another reminder that sexism has no place in the modern game.