to think that Sky Sports should sack Andy Gray and Richard Keys for this blatant sexism....

[theexample]

I know a lot of you don't like football but there was a female assistant referee officiating the game between Wolves and Liverpool yesterday. 2 of Sky Sports' main announcers/commentators were caught off camera (but with the mics still turned on, unbeknownst to them) making these remarks...

i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/01_04/sky.mp3

As a man, I can honestly say she did a good job and a lot of us on The Football Ramble forum believe Keys and Gray were out of order. What is the female perspective?

Here is a short transcript.

?Somebody better get down there and explain offside to her,? said Keys.

?Can you believe that? A female linesman. Women don?t know the offside rule,? said Gray.

Keys replied ?Course they don?t. I can guarantee you there will be a big one today. Kenny (Dalglish) will go potty. This isn?t the first time, is it? Didn?t we have one before?? And then he added ?The game?s gone mad. Did you hear charming [West Ham vice-chairwoman] Karren Brady this morning complaining about sexism? Do me a favour, love.?

Woah OP PMT maybe?

I'm a guy so unless you're referring to my Positively Massive Todger, you're wrong. I just want Mumsnet to start one of their campaigns to get rid of Andy Gray.

So do we need complaints to Sky, en masse??

Valhalla, no such thing as too old, or you could get them on age discrimination too!!

bless you, woman dont care about football we only aspire to wagdom. Mumsnet will only have a campaign if you take away their mooncups. Anything else is too risky but with a moon cup there is plenty of possible blood shed headlines that the DM will enjoy

Knew as soon as I saw her there would be trouble........She looked very young and was officiating a big game. She was absolutely brilliant and VERY RIGHT. Keys & Gray should be sacked-even my OH as an ex amateur league footballer agrees.

Think that's my 1st post that's been deleted by HQ. I'm going to view it as a badge of honour.
No idea why it was deleted mind.

I'll happily petition Sky to pension off these two dinosaurs and get a better pair of presenters. Are Saint and Greavsie still around?

oops wrong thread.
On this point I'd love to see the back of both of them from my football experience.

I qualified as a ref when i was 14.
I got fed up with my parents going all over the place with my brothers to play football and i got left at home. So i became a ref.

I can explain the offisde rule if you like. Though i believe Custy has the best version ever

I knew this must be being talked about somewhere! Thanks spongebob for the tip off. I can't believe anyone defends this. I've been going to matches week in week out since I was 8 (unfortunately that's now nearly 32 yrs ago!). I fully understand the offside rule and in this case the line-o was right despite the protestations. All the comments were before the game started and as far as I'm concerned, completely indefensible. Yes they should be sacked otherwise how will we ever move on.

I've seen far worse refs and linesmen already this season in the Championship, all men. Fine to slate someone when they've made mistakes but not because they're a woman ...come on.

I'll agree when women stop saying men can't multi task

Damn I just broke my nail extension and smudged my spray tan.

what, all women must adhere to your code of conduct before you'll say sexism is wrong?

"Did you hear charming [West Ham vice-chairwoman] Karren Brady this morning complaining about sexism? Do me a favour, love."

On that quote alone I'd sack them, for obviously being far too thick for the any job.

I think it just goes to show what low regard some men in football hold for women.

The officials are treated appalingly bad at each and every game. Can you imagine any other work place where it would be acceptable for 60,000 people to be chanting that you are a wanker????

Both of those odious men should be made to apologise to the line offical and then given the sack.

Carol Thatcher was sacked for arguably a less offensive comment! Andy Coulson and been forced to resign twice for something that he has not be proven to have done.
Those gits get to be as offensive and dismissive as you can be and nothing.

Bloody football. I wish it would be put back in a small box marked UNIMPORTANT on the top.

Totally agree with the posters pointing out that if you were to substitute black for female then they would have been correctly sacked for racism so why not the same sanction for sexism? In The Guardian, the report says that a few years ago some other football numbskull pundit was forced to resign over a racist statement.
Just another example of how sexism isn`t taken anywhere near seriously enough given that sexism exists in most societies regardless of ethnicity/religion.

Hmm

my dd plays football ( semi- professional) and could referee a game with her eyes shut - i hate this sexism in football, but it's so widespread we're fighting a losing battle.

have complained though - fwiw.

what pisses me off most about this story is the fact that Rodney Marsh and Ron Atkinson were both sacked from sky sports for making comments percieved to be racist (rightly)

and yet these obvious sexist remarks are allowed to go unpunished.

further proof if needed that only certain "isms" get taken seriously.

A satirical response

From what I heard on the radio this morning the decision in question was correct.

However as has been pointed out:

-These comments were made before that. They were assuming she wouldn't understand the rules of the game because she's a woman, not criticising any specific decision she'd made.

-Even if she had made gigantic errors, (as officials frequently do) it wouldn't have been because she has breasts. Plenty of rubbish refs/assistant refs with male appendages.

Just to point out Ron Atkinson was not sacked from sky sports so that's not a precedent.
Rodney Marsh made a joke about the tsunami when he knew he was live on air so they may differentiate based on that if they were looking for a justification to keep Keys and Gray on.

apologies, i was under the impression he had.

Live on air or not, sexism is allowed to stand and racism isn't.

we seem to be arguing whether a woman can be a referee. She is as qulaified as her male counterparts and has given no reason to doubt her ability. It is a distraction to discuss her merits as a ref.

The argument that should be had is the attitude towards women.

I'm complaining about this right now, thanks for the link Len

Bastards.

that is their workplace

sexism is unacceptable in any form

i hate that we are joking about it on here