Rangers and Celtic fans have been busy launching petitions
Eyebrows were raised on Wednesday night when Kris Boyd failed to make an appearance on Sky Sports for their coverage of St Mirren v Celtic.
The former Rangers striker has been a key part of their Scottish football coverage this season, regularly attracting attention for what he says and the look on his face when he says it.
A divisive figure, he’s been the subject of two Change.org petitions in recent days.
First, a Celtic fan launched a campaign for Sky Sports to remove him from games featuring the Scottish champions.
In response, a Rangers supporter started a counter-petition urging the broadcaster to give him a pay rise.
In that context, it’s no surprise that his absence from Wednesday night’s coverage had people asking questions.
There was, however, a simple answer.
As explained by Record Sport, a source close to Sky has insisted that the petition is not the reason for Boyd not being involved.
Boyd was in fact chosen to work on Sky’s Gillete Soccer Special, helping to provide coverage of games across the UK.
The Celtic petition, which currently has 2,596 signatures, was entitled ‘Take Kris Boyd off punditry/commentary for Celtic games not involving Rangers/Kilmarnock’.
The explanation reads: “As the sole TV broadcaster of the Scottish Premiership, Sky Sports has a responsibility to provide the nation’s football fans with the best possible coverage of live matches.
“A key factor in achieving this is to employ a balanced team of pundits and commentators that have either played for both clubs involved (or with no allegiance to either team/to either team’s main rivals).
“Unfortunately, former Rangers and Kilmarnock striker Kris Boyd has continually proven to be an extremely biased anti-Celtic pundit.
“It is flabbergasting that Sky Sports continues to allow him to pollute the air waves for Celtic matches which do not involve any of his former clubs.
“We would like to request that Sky Sports uses better logic in its deployment of commentators and pundits for all live Scottish football matches, most especially in relation to Kris Boyd.”
The Rangers petition now has 7,496 signatures.
Celtic went on to win the game 4-0 thanks to goals from Tom Rogic, Odsonne Edouard, Ryan Christie and David Turnbull.
The result cuts the gap between them and Rangers to 18 points, with Neil Lennon’s men having one game in hand.
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