Was Richard Keys in some way responsible for England winning the Euros? It’s not for him to say
We’ve been eagerly awaiting Richard Keys‘ inevitable blog post on the Women’s Euros, and it is does not disappoint.
After getting the platitudes out the way, Keysy reflects on his downfall/stitch-up, blaming “carefully edited phone footage” and reminding readers of all the great things he said about linesman Sian Massey before he ridiculed her presence.
It’s pure David Brent: they filmed hours of material, and most of it is a good bloke doing a good job. But the one time you humiliate a female official and talk about “smashing it” and “hanging out the back of” women, they put that on TV.
He even finds time to blame Massey herself:
It was Sian that introduced me to the word ‘banter’. She used it in the conversation I had with her on the Sunday when I called to apologise for what was said in the hack. But she shouldn’t have done. What she should have told me was ‘not funny Richard. It doesn’t help’. It was some time before I realised that.
And then, our favourite part, Keys suggests he might be partly responsible for England’s victory at Wembley:
Ironically, I think the incident did help in many ways – but that was a lucky by-product. I think a lot of people look back on it now as a turning point in how seriously men were prepared to take women’s football. Most of us have realised things had to change.
Finally, he reveals he has been anonymously donating money to a women’s football team “in my manor” for years, but insisted that no one ever found out about his sponsorship. Until now, apparently.
