I don't want to hark on and on about what happened, so I'll surmise; two Sky Sports presenters (Richard Keys and Andy Grey, pictured above) made sexist remarks about a female assistant referee (Sian Massey) and West Ham chairperson Karen Brady, which were at the time not broadcast but somehow reached the public consciousness.
The footage was a conversation that should not have been heard, spoken by two people who really should know better. This is not the first time commentators have been caught out; a lot of people will draw comparisons with sacked ITV pundit Ron Atkinson, who made racist remarks about ex-Chelsea player Marcel Desailly.
Some of the journalism this week hasn't exactly done much to promote equality in football; asking disinterested women (and men) on the street if they understand arguably the most complex law (as a once-qualified football referee, the interpretation is the hardest part to gauge) in football is at best, pretty banal and doesn't exactly do its bit for engaging women in the sport.
So what should everyone do next?
The FA (Football Association) should continue with its various schemes and programmes to improve the standard of all refereeing in football. Any "knee-jerk" decisions to introduce more female referees and assistant referees into the Premier League will be quickly touted as "shutting the gate after the horse has bolted", rightfully so. Many see the FA as a fair organisation trying to promote football at all levels, so they should not engage in any activity that will endanger this perception.
Sky should also have been less ambiguous with the length of "suspension" for the pairing of Gray and Keys. At the time of writing they were due to miss all of the midweek televised fixtures, and will miss out on a further week of Monday Night Football because of the FA Cup games replacing Premier League fixtures, to which Sky doesn’t own the television rights.
An on air public apology at the top of the next broadcast will go some of the way towards showing that Sky is not a sexist broadcaster (even though most of the female presenters on Sky Sports News have been lauded as sex icons by wide areas of the channel’s mainly male demographic), but by the time this happens many will have forgotten about the comments.
Keys and Gray should also receive referee training (if they are not already qualified) as this would re-enforce the need for new officials, especially at the grass-roots levels of the game. Sky could even televise the pair "running the line" in a Sunday League game, which would probably be quite entertaining to watch as they try to keep up with play, and might act as some form of scarlet letter punishment.
The point is that although the obvious temptation is to make radical changes in order to shed the "white van man" image that football fans have, it will be the minor adjustments to the game that will attract the least derision from fans.
Some of the key words within the offside law are “advantage” and “interfering with play”. The comments by Andy Gray and Richard Keys were certainly offside in the modern game, but the question now becomes which parties are “seeking to gain an advantage” on the back of this issue, and will it interfere with play?
UPDATE 26th Jan: I've just back from lectures at uni today (25th January) and BBC Sport are reporting that Andy Gray has been sacked from his role as a commentator / pundit on Sky Sports, as he apparently has a bit of a "track record" for sexist behaviour. Another pundit, Andy Burton has been 'stood down' from coverage of the Carling Cup Semi-Final 2nd leg between Birmingham and West Ham on Wednesday 26th January after he referred to Sian Massey as "a bit of a looker" in an off-air exchange with Gray prior to the live coverage on Sky.
I have a feeling this isn't the end of the matter...
Paul
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