Sky Sports News HQ tweeted a graphic this morning which gave a breakdown on the place of birth of the Ireland squad to take on Scotland this Friday. Now it more than likely comes in the wake of the comments by Gordon McQueen where he criticised James McCarthy and Aiden McGeady for choosing to play with Ireland but nonetheless, the graphic has angered many fans.
The Republic of Ireland take on Scotland this Friday. Here is a breakdown of their squads places of birth #SSNHQ pic.twitter.com/ITcVPk7M2k
— Sky Sports News HQ (@SkySportsNewsHQ) November 12, 2014
The reaction was one of outrage.
@SkySportsNewsHQ never seen you do this kind of statistic for any other country??? — Gavin Holmes (@GavinHolmes3) November 12, 2014
@SkySportsNewsHQ and out of 27 , 27 chose to play for Ireland
— IRISH5sos1d (@multifanyep) November 12, 2014
@SkySportsNewsHQ do one for the England cricket team?? — callum riches (@CallumRiches) November 12, 2014
@SkySportsNewsHQ trying to stir things up? All players in squad CHOOSE to play for Ireland. Ever do this stat for eng cricket team? Poor.
— Stephen Murray (@saj_murray) November 12, 2014
@SkySportsNewsHQ Will you thus for English Cricket Team next time? Dockrell and Morgan? Oh and the Rugby team with S Hemisphere players — Mark (@Ninjamark83) November 12, 2014
@SkySportsNewsHQ your irrelevant stat is serving only to incite hatred and bigotry.ridiculous behaviour.
— DCSFC (@DCSsoccer) November 12, 2014
@SkySportsNewsHQ whose idea was this. Clowns — inigo montoya (@bigfootsmelytoe) November 12, 2014
@SkySportsNewsHQ @SkyFootball i dont see the relevence of this and it is concerning that Sky feel the need to compare origins of birth
— scottie (@RuairiLynch2) November 12, 2014
@SkySportsNewsHQ why don't to show Roy Keane or @FAIreland that stat and see what reply you get ..... Disgraceful — Paul Baitson (@Baitsey1) November 12, 2014
@SkySportsNewsHQ sky sports, what are you insinuating with this?
— Ciaran Logue (@Loguester1) November 12, 2014
To be fair, I think they may have just been embellishing the debate that he arisen from McQueen's comments. And they also posted the stats regarding the Scotland squad. Wonder what McQueen makes of the five English born players then?
And here is a look at the Scotland squad: #SSNHQ pic.twitter.com/syGIDZlPRP — Sky Sports News HQ (@SkySportsNewsHQ) November 12, 2014
What do you make of it?