Sky Sports presenter David Jones apologises unreservedly for ‘spoiling’ Gary Neville’s anti-racism speech

Sky Sports presenter David Jones has apologised unreservedly for intervening during Gary Neville’s passionate anti-racism speech to stress that his views are not those of the broadcaster.

Neville delivered a second strong condemnation of the growing issue of racism in football on Sunday afternoon after Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger was allegedly racially abused by an apparent Tottenham fan during the London derby.

The incident follows a similar one two weeks ago in the Manchester derby, when United players Fred and Jesse Lingard appeared to be subjected to monkey taunts in their 2-1 win at City, with a number of United players subsequently reporting racist abuse after the match.

Former United and England defender Neville claimed that English football needs to realise that it has a big problem on its hands in how it has allowed racism to return to the game, with another high-profile incident involving Raheem Sterling last season at Stamford Bridge, and the Sky Sports pundit once again referenced how the current political landscape in Britain is having an impact on the Premier League,

But at the end of his argument, Jones – appearing to receive information in his ear from a producer – interjected to stress that Neville was expressing his own opinion.

"I am compelled to say that those are the opinions of Gary Neville and not Sky Sports. That is my duty,” Jones said, to which Neville asked him if he agreed of not.

"Whether I do or I don't is irrelevant. I'm here to try and hold a balanced debate."

Watch the video below...

Neville fumed at the response, responding that his argument was balanced given that it was based on the factual evidence of the racist language that has been used by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose comments of “piccaninnies” and “letter boxes” in the past have gone unpunished, while Labour’s recent electoral campaign was plagued by constant allegations of anit-semitism.

Jones and Sky received a strong backlash on social media as the video of the argument was shared hundreds of thousands of times in a matter of hours, with a number of prominent users speaking out about how the reluctance from the broadcaster to stand against racism only helps to fuel it.

Jones later posted an apology on Twitter, admitting that he was “so very disappointed” in himself for appearing to shut down a view against racism.

“I’m so sorry to have spoiled what was such an important discussion on racism tonight,” Jones posted on Twitter. “I had to intervene when Gary suggested the two main political parties were to blame - I didn’t make that clear enough. For that I apologise unreservedly.

“I would never purposefully shut down a discussion on racism. I’ve worked for Sky for over 20 years and know they share my view that racism of any kind should not be tolerated. That is not a debate. And that’s why I’m so very disappointed and sorry tonight.”

Sky Sports also posted a statement on Twitter, though notably did not issue an apology for the stance that was taken during the broadcast.

The statement read: “Sky Sports is against racism of all forms in any walk of life and will continue to give a platform to eradicating this vile behaviour from society.”