Veteran Sky Sports commentator Martin Tyler has come under fire for comments made about Hillsborough ahead of the new Premier League season.
The BBC has since issued an apology to listeners and has also issued a statement claiming they should have challenged the views live on air.
As a result of the comments, social media has gone crazy with people brandishing Tyler’s comments as ‘disgraceful’.
With the PL beginning tonight, Tyler will surely have to publicly apologise before getting back to work on TV.
Martin Tyler is a disgrace.
On Radio4 this morning he described the start of the Premier League as a time when football was in a crisis, “we weren’t that long after Hillsborough and other hooligan related issues”.
Was going to share the clip but he’s not worth it. Prick #JFT97
— Andrew Beasley (@BassTunedToRed) August 5, 2022
Tyler’s comments brandished ‘disgraceful’
Fans were outraged by the comments; so much so that the BBC had to issue an apology:
“We regret that we did not robustly challenge Martin Tyler on a comment which appeared to link Hillsborough & hooliganism.” Read the apology. “Martin has since apologised for the comment & clarified that these were separate examples & he did not intend to conflate the two.”
Tyler, 76, was speaking about 30 years of the Premier League. Then he referred to ‘Hillsborough and other hooligan-related issues’ words that have understandably caused great anger.
Fans were already hoping that the highly-popular commentator Peter Drury, the current NBC Sports commentator, would take over from Tyler – following fan backlash that his commentary has become un-inspired.
Hello @BBCr4today @BBCSounds
I take it you’ll be issuing an on air correction of this false claim by @SkySports commentator Martin Tyler that #Hillsborough was a “hooligan related issue” pic.twitter.com/fM6frRngjd
— Tom Dunn (@tomdunn26) August 5, 2022
People personally affected by the tragedy have since commented (via Liverpool Echo) with Hillsborough survivor and author Adrian Tempany who wanted the journalists to challenge his comments live on air:
“More shoddy journalism from the BBC today. So many journalists are now losing the ability to think on their feet, deviate from the script, and challenge people when they lie.”
Liverpool City Region Mayor and Liverpool fan Steve Rotheram described the comments as ‘exceptionally crass’ and said Mr Tyler ‘should know much better.” He added: “Even now people whose careers are built on football still spread these foul smears.”
It is widely known and accepted that disgraceful slurs made about Liverpool fans and hooliganism related to the 1989 disaster are untrue, as was clarified at the 2016 inquests which found Liverpool fans were unlawfully killed.
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