Good point about Chamberlain, she clearly does love football and is knowledgeable about it. That said, she is an attractive woman herself and Sky would never have hired her if she looked like Claire Balding.

The irony of an advert for 10 O'Clock Live being embedded in this piece is not lost.

I used to date a girl who did some work for Sky Sports. She told me then that Keys and Gray were fucking disgusting and that it put her off taking a full-time job with them which was a shame as she was an ace journalist who really knew the game, was a season ticket holder at an unfashionable club.

the mistake gray and keys made - and you're dead on about keys' snidey little 'let me in' stuff to the other three - is they thought they were the stars. like alan green on radio 5 they think they're the reason people tune in. it's slightly understandable in gray's case as he was a great player, but he's been andy gray off the telly for years now. the two of them forgot that it's the stuff they present that makes people buy sky boxes and tune in. if wayne rooney - for example - made any of the comments that have finished gray and look set to do the same for keys he wouldnt be sacked. his club, the fa, league, whoever, would put out a statement in his name. it'd soon be forgotten and the player would carry on. this will soon be forgotten too, the difference is, so will keys.

Football was once the place you could go to escape escape from the worlds moral decline... forget about it all for 90 minutes (and another glorious 15 minutes in the middle) where you could fight, shout filth at other people which on the street would normally get you cut to ribbons and your god given rights to racism, sexism and homophobia were protected... we've now officially lost two of those god given rights... this is well and truly the last death knell for football.

nice piece James.

George The Blonde I guess you don't go to football anymore or are forced to watch from plastic seats in a Prem stadium packed with stewards. I winced when i took my son to Ipswich V Leeds and listened to some prick behind me spend the whole match calling all our players cunts. I had to spend the whole game talking myself out of twatting him. The guy didn't even know who was and wasn't on the pitch. The safety of the mob still allows anyone to chant or shout whatever the fuck they want. And you're right it is a place where you can yell whatever you want and scream things you wouldn't in everyday life and that's def not gone away.

Good work fella

Very good.. and you even guessed what I was thinking! ;)

"Sky have managed to demystify football"? How the hell do you work that out? All we receive from the modern footballer in post-match interviews is a string of banal comments. All we receive from the wonderful Sunday morning sofa shows is a love-in between ex-players and current players. Perhaps you've never seen footballers on a night out. Perhaps you've never seen married footballers in the corner of nightclubs with 17-year-old girls. Perhaps you've never seen footballers treat women with complete and utter disdain. To attempt to suggest that Gray and Keys are somehow exceptions in football these days is quite laughable, I'm afraid.

How have they demystified football? How long have you got? here we go: Pitchside updates on why a player has been taken off during a match. Half-time and full time interviews with players and managers. Coaches like Don Howe and Andy Gray explaining from their perspective how teams are playing. Football journalists discussing how their take on it all works, analysing the politics behind moves, loss of form and so on. Days of Our Lives where ex-players look back on particular seasons with insights they couldn't reveal at the time. Former players commenting on the progress of games on saturday afternoon. Current footballers opening up about music tastes and hobbies and so-on on Soccer AM. Cameras in training grounds. Weekly news conferences with managers being filmed and broadcast. Instant news and information when stories break. None of this happened before Sky. Whether you rate it or not, or like it or not is a different matter. I could go on and on. As for your other questions. Yep, I've worked for a football club for five years, yes I've written books with players and and yes I've sat and drank and been on nights out with footballers. Loads of them, many many times: Rio, Rushy, Batty, Speed, Adams, Dixon, Unsworth, Yeboah, le Tissier, Redknapp, Radebe, James, Aldridge, Walsh, Gemmil, Whelan, Huckerby, Merson, Lampard, Wright, Sanchez, O'Leary, Lorimer, Clarke, Thownshend, McAteer, Shearer, Lee. I've been around fucking loads of footballers socially and professionally, on and off the record, I could triple that list. and no theyre not saints but being a footballer doesn't mean you go round calling women 'it', the vast majority of footballers never make the front page of the newspapers or get involved in scandals they're just normal boring family men, everyday blokes who are good at football.. The response from the three footballers in the studio would suggest Keys is the exception in this circumstance.

Didn't Soccer AM used to crown their Xmas specials with Helen Chamberlain firebreathing in her bikini? I think they did. Yes indeedy, Sky certainly don't patronise women, the very thought. And justifying the toe-curling soccerette feature ("...single? PHWOARRR SHE'S UP FOR IT LADS" etc etc) as some post-modern nod to the WAG culture is pathetic. Let's see who replaces Keys - hands on hearts who will be surprised in the slightest if Sky wheel in a busty blonde stunnah as proof that they're not sexist?

I'm not justifying Soccerette, I pointed out it looks a little out of time. I agree it's weird. My point is they have thousands of girls who want to be on it. i guess if no-one wanted to do it they wouldn't bother having it.

Thousans of girls wanting to be on telly isn't necessarily to be confused with thousands of girls approving of soccerette or features like it. If I might be pedantic. And, your boys took one hell of a thrashing last week at our hands, if I might be a horrible gooner cunt. I'd also add that with respect to Gullit/Redknapp/Souness their reaction to Keys might equally suggest that they were aware of being in a TV studio with cameras and microphones and stuff like that. I think "he wasn't as clever as footballers from the 70s, 80s or 90s" would be a fitting epitaph for Keys, who clearly forgot the difference between work and his fantasy of being able to "do banter" with ex pros.

I’m not justifying Soccerette, I pointed out it looks a little out of time and jars. I agree it’s weird. My point is they have thousands of girls who want to be on it. i guess if no-one wanted to do it they wouldn’t bother having it.

It is worrying that Keys stays and Gray walks because it reinforces the suspicion that Sky are less concerned about what these guys did and said than about Gray's legal action. And thanks for the reminder - I still haven't watch last weekend's Match of the Day yet.

James, my tongue was firmly in cheek that post. Down Millwall I have the privilege to get a more traditional football experience. But at away matches I've constantly been subjected to the fascism of the PC brigade. To protect the good name of bigotry at football I will from now on carry a dildo with me to matches, no, not to keep myself occupied at half time or build relations with Brighton fans but to throw at woman officials.

You think bringing two world cup finalists on with fifteen minutes to go to protect a 2-1 lead and then a defender on for a striker with ten minutes to go when you've scored another is handing out a thrashing? Until Van Persie scored the third you guys never looked like out and out winners, i can only remember that block at the start of the second half as the only time you came close whereas we narrowly missed scoring from two hard drives across the six yard box. That whole Leeds team cost less than two million quid to assemble. I'd have been embarrassed bringing Van Persie and Fabregas on. it's like getting your big brother to help you in a fight. We didn't even have our first choice centre-forward or creative midfielder but we managed to score the best goal of the night. I notice you don't mention the first game at your place when but for a slight arm tug - the sort of touch you give someone who's looking for you but not seen you in a crowded bar- your £100 million plus first team would have been embarrassed by players we signed from Northampton Town, Notts County, Norwich and other non Premiership teams beginning with N.

Think you're assuming a lot of knowledge about Keys, his workmates and his workplace there, James. Petty hatreds and office politics are a fact of life in every working environment. People say dumb ass things all the time; lots of us have dumb ass attitudes but we don't expect the office quisling to dob us in like some Vichy snitch. Comparing Keys to a fictional serial killer isn't particularly edifying, either. Why doesn't your lionisation of News Corp's collective staff conscience extend to the representation of women in its other publications - Page 3 girls? And show a bit of awareness here, mate .. surely Gray's highly embarrassing High Court action against the NOTW hasn't passed under your radar? You seem like a bloke with time on your hands.

That's alright it's all just opinion and personal experience. There's enough dildos at Millwall George you won't have to bring one with you. Has Harris retired yet? He seems to have it in his contract that he must score against Leeds. I've got to crack on with getting next week's copy commissioned otherwise there'll be no new stuff come sunday. Fire away guys it's all good stuff.

its shone a light on a version of football it wants you to see, the 'product'. i think sky's coverage is superb but only of the match itself - the camera-work, direction, some of the commentary. and they've done ace stuff - putting the score and clock on screen was so obvious but so brilliant. but i'm not interested in any of the fluff that goes with it though, which i think is a lot of what you're saying is demystified. fair play to those who are though, they're presumably in the majority.

I'd say you're right about the High Court action. The point about the fictional serial killer is that they both use the same language, that's Keys' doing not mine. For you to compare people highlighting the way the two presenters are caught on camera by putting clips up on You Tube to 'Vichy snitches' is ridiculous. I can see from your email address ay Sky that you obviously have a closer understanding of what people who work with these guys think but you can't argue with the fact that there are a lot of people emerging saying 'this is what these two are like'. I may have wrongly damned some of you in implying all their colleagues think they are shit-stains but some clearly do. And at the heart of all this is Keys talking about a woman as 'it'. He sounds like a loveless prick.

No James, he's still stumbling round the Den old Harris. Although he's definitely on his last legs and we're considering having him put to sleep at the end of the season. Luckily we get to play you in April, hopefully super Neil will put one past Leeds and deny you a play off place. You know it's going to happen. We're your bogey team and are destined to go chasing you through the leagues breaking Leeds hearts. Oh and I make the fella behind you at Ipswich right, your team are full of cunts! Much love, stay thug.

According to the press there's been a culture of bullying at Sky for some time, with the 'talent' thinking they are above the law. As you said JB, if you treat yor staff like shit, don't be surprised when stuff gets leaked. Keys should be out next - there must he a lot of pissed off staff happy to see that muppet go. Hopefully replaced by someone not dazzled by millionaires who can't chew gum and fart at the same time.

JB fair dos the first leg was a beautiful throwback to the glory days of "lucky Arsenal". KS looks the real deal and that's good because the idea of leeds cheering on a chip of the genetic manc block is brilliant. As to Keys, clearly he's a "monkey see, monkey do" autocue reader who got his banter from ex pros like Gray. Wonder what Jeff Stelling's like off camera on Countdown? "..cor that Vorderman, she can sit on my hypotenuse and Fermat my theorem oops sorry wrong show" etc etc

What was it Keys said?..."..the games gone mad...". Yeah it has Keys. The money the players earn, the money the pundits earn, the amount it costs to see a game....yeah it has gone mad but that is nowt do with women linos.

What a breathe of fresh air reading your article...Thank you for making my day - your observations in my opinion are spot on.

Keys has just been on Talk Sport. For over an hour. At one point his billionth apology descended in to a shit storm of rabid stuttering not heard since Gareth Gates got his cock stuck in his zip.

Just an addendum to the point Owen made. A couple of my mates used to work (up until 2 years ago) at a lighting firm which used to set up the temporary studios at the grounds. Or as Keys would call them, the 'Smash It' rooms. Naturally, I would ask about the various presenters etc, and I was told in no uncertain terms that Keys was considered a monumental sex-pest, whom many female colleague from technician to make-up artist had to have a spidey-sense when it came to his hairy paws. Nonce.

My truck with Sky is not their coverage (though I'm not sad to see Gray and hopefully Keys go - which begs the question, why don't public figures resign any more?). My problem's with the top-heavy distribution of money that's directly resulted from their intervention in the game and the fact that they've airbrushed football pre-1992 out of the picture. They've changed the sport irrevocably and if people cancelled their subscriptions, we might stand a chance of levelling the playing field again.

I've had the pleasure of working with AG & RK for nearly 15 years. What a pair of cunts. Everyone is loving this!

Lest we forget, Keys has previous for indiscreet off-air comments: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7gCYAtmYSI&feature=related

Your girlfriend's a scouser isn't she... Those ladies definitley know their stuff.

I sat next to Keys once at a Chelsea-Coventry game. Even though he's a fellow Sky Blue, I have to say the man is an utter prick, sucking up to anyone with more power/influence than him, trying very hard to be one of the boys etc. That Youtube clip is cringeworthy but matches with my brief experience of the man.

Mr Brown, I completely agree that Andy Gray's sacking was justified following his lecherous comments to Charlotte Jackson. However, if Ms Jackson doesn't want to be viewed as some sex object for the likes of Gray to ogle, then she isn't doing herself any favours by posing half-naked in lads' mags.

So Rob, what your saying is that because she chooses to occasionally pose in magazines to boost her profile, Gray can then harass her at work and ask to, in not so many words, touch his cock? What about models who wear next to sod all on the catwalk. Is it then acceptable to go up to them when they are fully clothed and harass them into 'tucking this in?' She chooses to pose in those magazines, it's her choice. She does not choose to be bullied by a grunting halfwit.

Not at all, Owen. As mentioned in my previous post, Gray got what he deserved and his suggestion that Charlotte effectively touch his cock is abhorrent. The problem stems from idiots like Gray, who will probably have seen pictures of Ms Jackson in various states of undress and consider her fair game for sexist and grossly inappropriate remarks.

Sooo happy someone else agrees about Robert Keys in terms of his actual ability as a host - he grates at best, i have to put him on mute when he starts talking and more often that not, switch over! He is a complete, as we say in the North, cows c*%t

I think that Gray and Keys could barely drive their Bentleys back to their mansions when they were sacked, such was force of the tears in their eyes. Poor sods are probably sat at home blubbing into their '49 Chateau Gilletes. You've got to feel sorry for them.

I think Rob has a point about Charlotte Jackson. Context is all. If Ms Jackson is a regular in lad's mags, the public profile she is creating isn't exactly one of serious journalist is it?

Sky has not ruined football, it has glued it together. Yeah, since the introduction of Sky Millions the gap between the top two tiers has never been closer. Maybe, like the sad old Ted I am, I yearn for the football of my youth, 25p in the boys pen and all that, but the world of professional football is now a world of the Haves and Have Nots. The beginning of which appears, at least to me, to dovetail nicely with the accent of Sky Sports and it's domination of association football. Yes, I love the fact there's so much more football to watch but it's come at a heavy, heavy price.

I wouldn't say Charlotte Jackson is a regular in "lad's mag's." However,I think it's highly questionable that even if she was it would make her less capable of being a decent sports journalisy. Judge her on talent alone.

The public gets what the public wants