This article is from page 57 of the 2011-02-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 57 JPG
IRELAND’S top soccer pundit John Giles has revealed that he has no interest in taking up any of the vacancies at Sky Sports created by the departures of Richard Keys and Andy Gray.
The pair were dismissed from the station following a recent on air controversy over comments about assistant referee Sian Massey.
Giles, along with Eamon Dunphy and Liam Brady, is one of the star members of RTE’s hugely popular panel of soccer pundits.
The trio’s analysis and comments are often as eagerly anticipated as the action on the field. Speaking in Ennis on Saturday, Giles said he would turn down a move to Sky.
He said, “No, no. There’ll be no chance of that call anyway but I wouldn’t do it. It would be too time consuming. I wouldn’t want to do it. I’m just happy doing what I’m doing at the moment”.
The former Irish international also admitted that he isn’t a big fan of the analysis provided by some of his counterparts on cross-channel televisions stations.
He explained, “I don’t think it’s very good. I look at them the same as everybody else does. I thought at the World Cup they were very poor. I thought the BBC panel, all of them… England were having a nightmare against Slovenia and America and they kept hedging their bets. They were worried about them qualifying and being shown up and I don’t think they called it at all. England were awful at the World Cup. But they only started having a go at them when they were 4-1 down against Germany. But they didn’t say any thing critical of them before that”
Giles added, “I think we call it as we see it. In the first match against America they played very poorly. But when you see the English media, they were saying, ‘oh they played well, they played ok’. When it was obvious to everybody that they played rubbish. But that’s their business and we get on with our business. And hopefully we’ll get the viewers and we’ll keep them”
The 70-year-old Dubliner says he enjoys his role as a soccer pundit and has no intention of hanging up his microphone anytime soon.
He said, “I’ll go as long as they want me. I keep saying I’ve been doing it for 24 years and they haven’t found me out yet (laughs), so until they do I’ll keep doing it”.