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Bristow dropped by Sky Sports over footballer abuse tweets

Eric Bristow
Eric Bristow

Eric Bristow has been dropped as a darts pundit for Sky Sports after the five-time world champion sparked outrage on social media on Monday with comments about the ongoing child abuse scandal in sport.

The 59-year-old launched into a Twitter rant in which he said "dart players tough guys footballers wimps".

He added that had been a victim of abuse he would have sought revenge as an adult and claimed he was glad he was a darts player and a "proper man".

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Bristow was pundit for Sky Sports on their darts coverage, however, according to The Independent, a Sky spokesman said: "He was a contributor to our darts coverage in the past but we will not be using him in the future."

The series of posts drew fierce criticism, including from Steve Walters, one of the former footballers to have spoken out about his abuse at the hands of convicted paedophile and former Crewe coach Barry Bennell, who tweeted: "Disgusted with Eric Bristows remarks tonight #stoneagementality."

So far more than 20 former footballers have come forward alleging they were victims of child abuse as junior players, Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Gordon Taylor has said. Numerous police forces are also investigating the allegations.

Bristsow wrote: "Might be a looney but if some football coach was touching me when i was a kid as i got older i would have went back and sorted that p**f out."

Another Tweet said "bet the rugby boys are ok" - prompting a reply from Brian Moore, the former England hooker who himself was abused as a child.

"I'm not even going to address the many reasons these tweets are wrong. I'll just say ignorance is no excuse for this idiocy," Moore wrote.

Bristow received widespread condemnation for his comments, but continued, adding: "Trouble is nowadays you cant tell the truth.

"Everybody that works on tv is frightened to say the truth because they are frightened to lose their job. Life shouldnt be like that."

Later, Bristow went back on social media to apologise for using a homophobic term, stating "sorry meant paedo not p**f".

The controversial tweets have since been deleted from Bristow's account.

Newcastle United announced on Tuesday that Bristow has been dropped from an event at St James' Park next week.

Bristow was due to appear alongside Bobby George, Steve Beaton and Keith Deller at An Evening with Darts Legends on December 6 but has been replaced by Kevin Painter.

A Newcastle statement read: "In light of tweets made by the darts player Eric Bristow, Newcastle United has taken the decision today to withdraw him immediately from a scheduled appearance at an event taking place at St. James' Park on December 6. The club will not work with Eric Bristow in the future."

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