Richard Keys's tin-eared tribute

The great Terry Yorath has died, aged 75. To Welsh football fans, he was a legend, winning 59 caps, being the first Welshman to play in a European Cup final and, as manager, being a spot-kick away from making it to the 1994 World Cup.

To many others, his sad passing is a loss to his daughter, Gabby Logan, the Match of the Day host and general mainstay of the BBC’s sport broadcasting. But to Richard Keys, the former Sky Sports presenter now exiled in Qatar, it is all about… Richard Keys.

The presenter, who left Sky after making derogatory comments about a female assistant referee, took to X upon learning of Yorath’s death to post his own unique tribute.

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“Sad to hear the news of Terry Yorath’s passing,” he wrote. “He was a warrior & won fans over wherever he played. He was great for us at Coventry & the reason I got Gabby a job at Sky. I had no idea who she was when we met but I knew her dad. RIP Terry. Your daughter did you proud.”

The post – remarkable even by Keys’s tin-eared standard – earned a rebuke from fellow broadcaster Dan Walker, who wrote: “Richard, just imagine what it would be like for Gabby, or a member of her family, to read this. I’m hoping you have just worded this badly and it isn’t a dig at a really difficult time. There is still time to change it.”

Keys has yet to change his post – although he is a man who likes to take his time over things. He has yet to follow through on a threat made well over three years ago to take action against Logan after she made a string of allegations in her autobiography about her time working with him and wingman Andy Gray, including that they joked about refusing to have sex with pregnant women while she was carrying twins.

At the time he said the allegations were “wildly inaccurate” and that he had “referred the matter to lawyers with a view to proceeding with libel action”. Three years and three months on, no legal action seems to have begun.