Presenter apologises after Venables appears to say ‘woofters’
By Josh Haggis
Sky Sports presenter Ben Shephard apologised on air over the weekend after former England football manager Terry Venables appeared to make a joke that could be deemed homophobic.
Venables was being interviewed on Sky Sports’ Goals on Sunday by football pundit Chris Kamara and Good Morning Britain presenter Shephard yesterday (May 25) when he appeared to use a very old-fashioned term for gay men, reports The Daily Mail.
Venables, 71, was reminiscing about the 1991 FA Cup final at Wembley,when he told an anecdote about how former Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough held his hand as they walked out onto the pitch before the game.
“As I come out he grips my right hand with his left hand and I’m clamped, I’m clamped,” Venables recalled. He then seemed to say that he and Clough looked like a “pair of woofters”. Watch footage of the incident below:
Shephard immediately apologised to viewers for any offence that may have been caused by what Venables seemed to say.
Responding to Venables’ apparent use of the word “woofters”, a spokesperson for gay rights group Stonewall said: “This kind of language might have been acceptable in 1991 but seems really rather dated in Britain today.”