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Trash Talk

Five more ill-judged comments from sport's TV pundits

Richard Keys and Andy Gray have found themselves in hot water today because of their sexist remarks over the weekend. Here’s a handful of similar mistakes on TV.

SKY SPORTS TV pair Richard Keys and Andy Gray have found themselves in hot water today because of their sexist remarks over the weekend. They’re not to first to mis-speak while the mics are live.

It’s not in the same league as the others maybe, but former Leinster and Munster man Paul Wallace compared Pumas’ out-half Felipe Contepomi to an Argentine navy cruiser which was controversially sunk by Britain in the Falklands War.

Sky producers moved quickly to apologise for the Belgrano comment, during their Heineken Cup broadcast.

Graeme Souness gave RTÉ bosses cause to issue an apology too when he explained to those watching the World Cup coverage last summer that Fernando Torres had been ‘raped’.

The BBC weren’t so forgiving with MOTD guest pundit Alan Pardew when the present Newcastle boss used the same insensitive terminology. He wasn’t asked back.

Of course, the present Sky controversy bares some similarities to that which embroiled Ron Atkinson. The former Aston Villa boss lost his ITV job when his racist rant was broadcast to some regions.

Rodney Marsh too found himself out on his ear when a joke of his fell flat on Soccer Saturday in 2005.

He joked live on air that David Beckham rejected a move to Newcastle United because of the trouble caused by the Toon Army in Asia.