Anybody of sane mind would have been appalled by Eric Bristow's comments regarding the ongoing child abuse scandal in football.
The former professional darts player and current pundit took to Twitter last, for some reason keen to give his two cents on an unquestionably delicate and important issue. His comments, now deleted from Twitter, were understandably greeted with universal scrutiny and anger, with Bristow suggesting that footballers who suffered abuse should have gone back to their boyhood clubs as grown men and 'sorted out' the perpetrators.
The five-time World darts champion is a regular pundit on Sky Sports' coverage of the sport, but such comments led for many to call for his removal from future broadcasts.
PDC chairman Barry Hearn told one Twitter user that the decision had nothing to do with him or promotional organisation Matchroom Sport, and that the decision lay solely with Sky Sports.
Eric Bristow works for Sky and not the pdc or matchroom. His comments are a matter for him and his employer to consider.
— Barry Hearn (@BarryHearn) November 28, 2016
This morning, Daniel Taylor of The Guardian - who initially broke football's ongoing abuse scandal - confirmed that Sky Sports had officially cut ties with Bristow, and will no longer feature him in any of their darts coverage.
Sky Sports have held talks this morning about the tweets from Eric Bristow, their darts pundit, and "will not be using him in the future."
— Daniel Taylor (@DTathletic) November 29, 2016
As you can imagine, people weren't overly sympathetic towards the 'dart player proper man'...
Meanwhile, this tweet, from the middle of Briscoe's misguided rant which has this morning been deleted, is look rather pertinent right about now:
Everybody that works on tv is frightened to say the truth because they are frightened to lose their job, life shouldn't be like that.
