“Is there nothing you’re not an expert on?”
Richard Keys has taken aim at Gary Neville after the Sky Sports pundit criticised BT Sport’s coverage of the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid.
The final at the Stade de France was delayed by 35 minutes as some Liverpool ticket-holders were held outside the stadium. French police used tear gas on the crowds.
As the chaos unfolded, BT Sport cameras remained mostly in the stadium, where the panel of ex-footballers continued to preview the match.
The @btsportfootball this evening bringing you the #UCLfinal
👊🏽❤️#LiverpoolVsRealMadrid pic.twitter.com/kv2lfhn1cC
— Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) May 28, 2022
Neville criticises BT Sport’s coverage of the Champions League final.
This prompted many on social media to question why the broadcasters did not do more to cover the scenes outside the stadium and keep the viewers informed on the worrying scenes.
During the Champions League final delay, Adam Crafton, a journalist for The Athletic, tweeted:
“Surprised BT Sport don’t have a team on standby outside of the stadium, getting little to no sense of the major story from the broadcaster.”
Gary Neville quoted the tweet and criticised BT Sport, suggesting that they lack the skills required to adequately cover such a big story as it unfolds.
“Are you surprised? I’m not,” the Sky Sports pundit said. “They can’t react or aren’t agile to things like this happening.”
Are you surprised? I’m not.They can’t react or aren’t agile to things like this happening 🤷🏻♂️ https://t.co/ohyAA2bse3
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) May 28, 2022
Neville also retweeted criticism of BT Sport.
Keys v Neville.
On Monday, Richard Keys criticised Neville for his comments about BT Sport. The beIN Sports presenter defended the broadcasters and presenter Jake Humphrey.
Keys also criticised Neville’s role in Sky Sports’ coverage of the stadium invasion at Old Trafford last year, which saw a match between Manchester United and Liverpool abandoned ahead of kick off after United fans protested against the club’s support of the failed European Super League.
“F*** me @GNev2, Is there nothing you’re not an expert on?” Keys tweeted on Monday.
“I’ve worked with guys @BTSport & they’re top pros as @mrjakehumphrey has said. I’m quite certain Saturday was a challenging night for everyone. Just like covering the OT (Old Trafford) riot you instigated & covered badly at Sky.”
F**k me @GNev2 Is there nothing you’re not an expert on? I’ve worked with guys @btsport & they’re top pros as @mrjakehumphrey has said. Im quite certain Saturday was a challenging night for everyone. Just like covering the OT riot you instigated & covered badly at Sky 🤷♂️.
— Richard Keys (@richardajkeys) May 30, 2022
BT Sport’s coverage of the Champions League final.
In a LinkedIn post, BT Sport presenter Jake Humphrey explained why the broadcasters did not provide more coverage from outside the stadium in Paris.
Humphrey said that the BT Sport production team had ‘limited information’ about the issues and that they could not get close to the stadium gate where the incident was unfolding.
“Possibly one of the hardest sports events I’ve ever covered. And I’ve done some tricky ones,” Humphrey said.
“We had limited information about what was going on outside, my talkback (the umbilical cord to my production team) suddenly stopped working, the TV compound was impacted by the tear gas so our production team were barricaded in their trucks.
“And many of us had friends and family at the game and we had no idea if they were even safe. And amongst all that, we were trying our best to get the tone right, under the scrutiny that seems exclusive to live football.
“Hopefully you wouldn’t have known too much about all that, the BT Sport production team are up there with the very best I have ever worked with.”
Champions League final.
Meanwhile, France’s sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra criticised Liverpool for failing to ‘control’ the travelling fans. Oudéa-Castéra blamed the issues on ’30-40,000′ fans arriving with ‘fake tickets’ at the final.
Liverpool chairman Tom Werner has called on Oudéa-Castéra to apologise for her comments and the club strongly refutes any suggestions of wrong-doing on the part of their supporters.
UEFA have ordered an independent review of the incident.
