This follows the comments made by one of the station’s pundits earlier this week…
Sky Sports pundit and former Scotland international Gordon McQueen said earlier this week that James McCarthy and Aiden McGeady were “traitors” and that he hoped the pair were booed during Scotland’s Euro 2016 qualifier against Ireland in Glasgow on Friday.
The two lads were born in Scotland but opted to play for Ireland having qualified through the grandparent rule and there are similar examples of that in most international teams in the world.
However, Sky Sports decided to take a closer look at the background of the Ireland squad and they produced this graphic this morning and it’s upset a lot of people.
The Republic of Ireland take on Scotland this Friday. Here is a breakdown of their squads places of birth #SSNHQ pic.twitter.com/ITcVPk7M2k
— Sky Sports News HQ (@SkySportsNewsHQ) November 12, 2014
Are Ireland being unfairly targeted or is the observation actually fair enough?
Strange that @SkySports feel the need to highlight the birthplace of each member of Ireland & Scotland football squads. Bit classless that.
— Stephen Walshe (@stephenwalshe) November 12, 2014
Sky Sports making a big deal out of Irish players not being born in Ireland whilst their national Cricket Captain is Irish. Makes sense
— Darragh O Leary (@doleary02) November 12, 2014
Sky Sports News ggetting a lot if abuse by Ireland fans over their shit-stirring statistic
— Cormac kennedy (@Cormackennedy95) November 12, 2014
@SkySportsNewsHQ @SkyFootball i dont see the relevence of this and it is concerning that Sky feel the need to compare origins of birth
— scottie (@RuairiLynch2) November 12, 2014
@SkySportsNewsHQ never seen you do this kind of statistic for any other country???
— Gavin Holmes (@GavinHolmes3) November 12, 2014
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