Richard Keys
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| Richard Keys | |
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| Born | 23 April 1957 Coventry, England. |
| Occupation | Television presenter |
Richard Keys (born 23 April, 1957 in Coventry), is an English television presenter on the British sports channel Sky Sports.
In the mid to late 1980s, he co-presented TV-am, a breakfast show on the ITV network, with Anne Diamond. He also commentated on football for the ITV network. Keys was one of the presenters for The Sports Channel on British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) in Spring 1990. When BSB merged with Sky in 1991, the channel was renamed Sky Sports. Keys presented TV-AM for the final time on Friday 28th December 1990 before he left for Sky Sports full time.
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[edit] Sports presenting
Keys has presented Sky Sports coverage of Premier League football since the league's inception in 1992. He remains the presenter of the flagship Super Sunday and also presented Sky's Monday Night Football until Ian Payne took over in 2003, which coincided with Sky gaining rights for the UEFA Champions League. Sky broadcast their 1,000th Premier League game May 10, 2007 with Keys fronting the majority of them. [1] Taking into account all the other competitions, Keys had already clocked up a personal milestone of 1,000 games (558 Premiership fixtures, 134 FA Cup and 57 League Cup ties, 71 England internationals, 20 Scottish matches and 11 Charity Shields) back in 2002 and was given a Merit Award by the Premier League sponsor's Barclaycard in recognition. [2]
He presented Euro 2008 for Al Jazeera Sports. [3]
In November 2008 Sky Sports was criticised by Roy Keane who named Keys by person in his criticism, "I was asked last week by ITV to do the Celtic game," he said. "A couple of weeks before that I was asked to do the United game against Celtic at Old Trafford. I think I've done it once for Sky. Never again. I'd rather go to the dentist. You're sitting there with people like Richard Keys and they're trying to sell something that's not there.[4]
[edit] Controversy
Keys was involved in controversy while presenting The Faroe Islands against Scotland in a Euro 2008 qualifier on 6 June 2007 on Sky Sports. Shortly before closing the programme when he thought he was off-air he said "Nay promos, can't be arsed, that’s it, see ya. Come on. Yeah see ya. Daft little ground, silly game, fuck off." The feed was broadcast on the Sky High Definition channel. Sky apologized, noting that Keys was at the end of a six-hour shift and was directing his comments towards the Faroe Islands' "quirky" stadium in Toftir rather than Scottish football. Keys retained his position at Sky Sports.[5]
[edit] Personal life
He attended Whitley Abbey Comprehensive School in Whitley, Coventry.
