Richard Keys is at it again.
The disgraced former Sky Sports pundit has taken aim at Alan Shearer on Twitter after the Geordie legend called for FIFA to properly compensate the migrant workers who suffered to ensure that the Qatar World Cup went ahead.
Shearer said: “I think the reality of the World Cup is even more stark when you’ve been living in what feels like a football theme park for the last month.
“If Disney did football tournaments… But we must remember the blood, sweat and tears of everyone that’s made it happen. And it’s only right, I think, that FIFA compensates the migrant workers and their families.”
I don’t see anything wrong with that statement, it seems like a reasonable thing to say in the context of being a pundit at the World Cup, and something that quite rightly needed saying.
Of course, Keys had other ideas and dropped a whataboutery tweet of epic proportions:
Oh dear @alanshearer Why didn’t you mention the things that bothered you in the near decade you worked for Al Jazeera & beINSPORTS? Be sure you have words with the current Newcastle Utd owners about the same issues eh? 🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/Su0yHfxSs7
— Richard Keys (@richardajkeys) December 20, 2022
First off, Mr Keys, it’s nice to see you’re still obsessed with Newcastle, thanks for the rent-free space in your head. Second, Al-Jazeera and BeIN aren’t, as far as we know, responsible for any human rights atrocities, so why would he call them out?
And then pointing the finger saying he should say something about our owners while you sit in your cosy studio backed by *checks notes* Qatari money is about as close to the written version of the Spider-Man pointing meme as you’re going to get.
If you want to make a point about the human rights of a country, you can’t do so from your similarly abusive ivory tower. The bottom line is, a company and a people is not its country and therefore whatever goes on in the name of their Country, unless they’re directly responsible for it, is nothing to do with a company or a people based in said country. I’m sure that’s the logic Richard Keys uses to sleep at night on a pile of Qatari money.