Damien

The problem is that these are not back room staff or office workers. Their perceived public personality is of immense importance. If that perception is of a couple of sexist 80's throwbacks who think Football is a 'man's game' then that is not the image Sky want to convey in their coverage.

Football in this country has been trying to appeal to more people, it's shed an image of hooliganism, or racism and now it's tried to decrease the impression that it's a sport for men. In recent years more and more women have been following football, the lineswoman was a extension of that, and these comments risked positioning Sky on the wrong end of that trend.