Andy Gray and Richard Keys caught in sexism slur during LFC game

Andy Gray sues NOTW.

Gets caught out by a Sky microphone thought to be turned off. Mysterious.

Murdoch gets his way again.

Don't know if this is the right place but I thought it was worth posting. My view has long been the football punditry is awful compared with other sports. In part due to the 'jobs for the boys' attitude of many within football in this country but also I believe, this is based on what happened with us under H&G, because your average pundit and fan is incapable of dealing with the complicated nature of ownership, net spending, etc.

Who wants to view a pre-match discussion on the intricate nature of the situation Rafa Benitez worked in? Nah, let show some zonal marking clips. Who wants to see a tactical analysis of how Chelsea started to struggle? Nah, lets just show some clips of Drogba looking uninterested.

TV's chance to elevate football punditry to the level of enlightenment

The Andy Gray-Richard Keys saga gives football broadcasters an opportunity to end the crass chatter on our screens

There is a burning appetite out there for more rigorous football punditry: a point lost on the more star-struck television executives, who are failing in their duty to re-train and to coach. More Mike Atherton, less Paul Merson was the cry from the street when Andy Gray fell and Richard Keys again morphed into Alan Partridge with his parting shot: "Success breeds envy."

The two modes of TV broadcasting are shouting into the lug 'ole of the imagined "bloke in the pub" and cosy-cosy on the sofa for all the family. Neither is conducive to the kind of mind-enriching insight and analysis served up by Atherton, Nasser Hussain and David Lloyd in cricket.

This disparity is written into the histories of the two sports, many frustrated football watchers argued after the Gray-Keys imbroglio. One is contemplative and articulate, the other visceral and cliche-inclined. But there is no reason for football to keep its range of expression so narrow, its expert analysis so anodyne and its journalistic standards so low.

This is not to dismiss all ex-player commentators. Lee Dixon, Gareth Southgate, Chris Kamara, Graeme Souness, Mark Lawrenson, Alan Smith, Scott Minto and the under-used Gary O'Reilly are among the former pros who seek to cast light and treat their new vocations seriously (we are talking television here, where David Pleat is also a fine analyst – not radio, where the BBC also hands out co-commentating mics too easily).

The craving one hears all the time is: tell me about the game, show me, help me understand, as Atherton or Hussain can, and Paul Merson, Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke cannot, or choose not to. Controversy-phobic players in search of a job are not the prime culprits. In football, a fame-addled industry, they are led up from reception, slapped with make-up and shown to a sofa, where their presence alone is meant to be sufficient. "Look: it's Dwight Yorke!"

This is not broadcasting, it's Madame Tussauds. It is institutionalised sycophancy, for which the viewer is paying. And it patronises the aficionado in his and her own home. People who follow football properly spend more time thinking about the game than is probably good for them. From ex-players they seek the kind of enlightenment that is beyond their own musings on the bus or train. They are not fooled by in-jokes, love-ins or the kind of evasions that end with a violent leg-breaking tackle being described as "unfortunate".

Gray and Keys were not guilty of these offences. With his Pentagon box of replay tricks, Gray would break the game down, sometimes with sledgehammer emphasis on a full-back "bombing on", and Keys would ask a tough question, and bring journalistic shape to the discussion (on-air, at least). But the spectacular implosion of the game's big front-of-house double act offers television a chance to listen at last to viewers when they say they want less of the old boy network and more intelligent talk about the game.

Especially annoying is Match of the Day 2's special guest slot, when a big name is coated in honey by Colin Murray, whose questions could do with a regular trim to eliminate unnecessary clauses. Most of us watch MOTD2 to see the game deconstructed a bit more, and explained, in the Lee Dixon style. We might want to know why Andrey Arshavin is a ghost of his old self or how Kenny Dalglish has altered Liverpool's playing style. To be confronted with a re-run of some of Andy Cole's best career moments is merely an invitation to head off to bed.

Away from the live action itself, Sky clearly aims its coverage at what you might call the impassioned fan: hence Phil Thompson, Charlie Nicholas and Merson on Soccer Saturday. At least it has thought about its audience. The BBC, on the other hand, displays a curious urge to present football as light entertainment. Thus Gary Lineker, who could say plenty about the specifics of a game or passage of play, is trapped in the role of smooth presenter and link man, settling us all down for the ancient Saturday night ritual.

In American sport the talking heads who fill the gaps between games are emboldened by their masters to be provocative as well as highly detailed in their technical analysis. The result is entertainment plus enlightenment (plus earache, sometimes). Here, in football, there is no ante-room between the end of a playing career and the start of a life in broadcasting, which is television's fault.

To ex-players, and their agents, TV should recite some rules. There would be no easy hour on a sofa without training and preparation. The viewer beyond the camera is not a docile consumer of celebrity chatter but someone with a deep interest in the mechanics and nuances of the game. Football on TV is too often talking to itself.

They have joined Talksport now apparently.

They have joined Talksport now apparently.

Just heard that on the radio.  Talksport is about the right level for them.

Just heard that on the radio.  Talksport is about the right level for them.

Not all Talksport is bad, Ian Collins is great and they used to have the master of late night radio, James Whale.  A lot of stiff they output is trash, but I'll defend some of the non sport stuff they've done late/over nights as it has quite often been of good quality & not the sycophantic, politically correct snoozefest that is five live, the only real opposition in the realms of talk radio.

But for Richard Keys it isn't just sexism.

Sexism row pundit Richard Keys shock racist slur on black player

Shamed football pundit Richard Keys described a black player as “choco” in an outrageous racist outburst.

Keys made the shocking remark while rehearsing for a Sky broadcast with ex-footballers Graeme Souness and Ray Wilkins.

Referring to black David Johnson, a potential Scottish international, he casually called him “Choco Jocko”.

The presenter, who quit in shame in a sexism storm last month, did not realise he was live on a test channel.

It means Keys will walk into his first day in his new job at TalkSport radio station tomorrow having to answer serious questions about racism. Last night anti-racism groups in the footballing world condemned Keys.

The disgraced pundit, whose sidekick Andy Gray was sacked from Sky Sports for sexist comments about female ­linesman Sian Massey, was discussing Johnson’s ineligibility to play for ­Scotland in a Euro 2000 play-off when he made the comment 11 years ago.

Keys explained the situation saying: “Obviously Johnson, who they’ve (Scotland) courted for some time like the Welsh, hoped to get involved and it transpires he has an English mother which means he can only play for England apparently.

“He was born in Jamaica and has played for them.”

Former Chelsea assistant manager Ray Wilkins starts asking a question, saying: “Is it, is he not?” before Liverpool and Scotland legend Souness interrupts and says: “He looks like a Jock doesn’t he?”

Without hesitation Keys replies: “Choco Jocko.” The sick joke is met by embarrassed laughter from others.

David Johnson, now a Nottingham-based football agent, said he was “very ­disappointed” to hear of the comments.

He added: “If I’d have heard him say that at the time I would have been absolutely furious.”

Ged Gebby, chief of Show Racism The Red Card, slammed Keys’ remark, saying: “There’s been a huge improvement in ­relation to racism in football in recent years, but individual comments are still being made, week in, week out.

“For a commentator to be making this kind of ­comment is outrageous.”

Keys was rehearsing at Sky’s West London studios before a UEFA Cup evening of matches when his remarks were fed out on a testing channel for a football interactive service.

The racist comment came nine days before the crucial European qualifier at Hampden Park in Glasgow, which England won 2-0.

But Key’s insults are not reserved for former Nottingham Forest player Johnson, 34. The foul-mouthed pundit also turns on former Leeds manager David O’Leary. When a pre-recorded audio clip of O’Leary talking about his team’s chances in a UEFA Cup clash is played Keys puts on a mock Irish accent, saying: “I’m the father. They’re young boys, Andy, young boys.”

After pausing to laugh he adds, “He says the same s***e every week.”

Ex-Wimbeldon manager Joe Kinnear is next on his list. When the issue of a ­vacant coaching job at Blackburn Rovers is ­mentioned ­Graeme Souness says: “Joe Kinnear will get that, won’t he?”

Keys, talking about ex-Wimbledon manager Dave Bassett – nicknamed “Harry” – retorts: “Don’t be daft – they need a proper manager. "Joe would be like Harry Bassett.”

Keys, 53, then lays in to Sky viewers – the people who pay his wages. ­Describing how to use the new ­interactive service, he says: “Press the help button at any time for information you fools.”

Explaining the process later he says: “Remember you can push the help button at any time for more ­information and if you can’t work this out you sad b******s shouldn’t have this kit.”

The latest scandal comes less than three weeks after Keys was forced to step down as a Sky football host. He came under pressure from bosses after he and Andy Gray mocked female assistant referee Sian Massey off-air. The pair suggested she did not know the offside rule.

Three days later a leaked video ­showing Keys making vile, sexual ­comments about Jamie Redknapp’s ex-girlfriend Louise Glass was posted on YouTube and he resigned.

Keys said last night: “I absolutely refute any suggestion of any racism.

"This was off-air and 11 years ago and anyone who knows me knows that Ruud Gullit, Dion Dublin and Ian Wright are not only my past associates but some of my best friends.”

A spokesman for Sky said: “He is no longer an ­employee.”



http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/02/13/sexism-row-pundit-richard-keys-shock-racist-slur-on-black-player-115875-22919246/

Finally being shown up as one horrible, arrogant c**t. He even uses the "how can I be racist, I've got black friends" and then there is the fact that this happened 11 years ago, so Sky quite happily condone racism then do they?

Somebody has it in for him.

Must be a pesky black woman.

Richard Keys Racist 'Choco Jocko' Outburst

Such a disgusting man. He is now pretty much hated all across the UK!

Karma is a bi*ch to us all!