Sexism Scandal
A few days ago two of the most recognized voices in football, Andy Grey and Richard Keys, got new jobs as sports commentators on radio. For them it was a good end to a bad fortnight which had started with them making sexist comments about a female match official and resulted in them losing their prestigious jobs on Sky Sports after more evidence of sexism was made public.
Fair or Not
While some say it is just ‘political correctness gone mad’ as the commentators were trying to be funny, it actually highlights the fact that football is years behind the rest of the country in terms of attitudes and equality. Yet the Premier League is a multi-billion pound industry and one of the most famous and visible elements of English life. The facts speak for themselves. There are only a handful of women involved in the sport and people talk of institutionalised racism given that there are hardly any black managers and virtually no Asian players. Homophobia is also clearly a problem as there is not one openly gay professional footballer in the country.
What Next?
The real question is not if what they said is acceptable but how many other people in football are saying discriminatory things. The next issue is how can the rest of the country make football join the real world? How about in your country? Are there any areas in your country which are so obviously behind the times?
| 1 | the racism | a racist | racist behaviour |
| 2 | the sexism | a sexist | sexist behaviour |
| 3 | the prestige | a prestigious job | |
| 4 | the politics | a politician | political correctness |
| 5 | the equality | equal opportunities | |
| 6 | homophobia | homophobic behaviour | |
| 7 | the discrimination | discriminatory behaviour |
Glossary
Notice how the following key words can be nouns, people or adjectives depending on how we complete the word. Click here for more tips on how to learn vocabulary.
