RACE ROW OUTCAST

Football shuns BBC pundit after radio rant

CRAIG RAMAGE may struggle to find work anywhere in football after being axed by the BBC for his racist rant about Derby’s young black players.

The 49- year- old sparked outrage in a podcast when he singled out ‘all the young black lads’ at the club, saying they needed ‘pulling down a peg or two’ after Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Huddersfield. Sources close to the situation suggest there could be major implications for the ex-Derby and England Under 21 midfielder beyond losing his BBC radio Derby work.

The BBC acted swiftly, conducting an investigation that led to ramage being sacked on Sunday hours after his comments aired.

But that may not be the end of the matter for ramage, now he has the shocking attack that played on racial stereotypes attached to his name. The matter may not be over for the BBC, either, and the possibility of further casualties has also not been ruled out.

Chris Burns, who is responsible for the BBC’s local radio stations across the country, visited BBC radio Derby yesterday as they stepped up their internal investigation. There are concerns about how ramage’s recorded comments were ever broadcast and why normal BBC protocol when anything of an offensive nature is said was not followed.

ramage’s comments on the Sportscene podcast emerged when the show went live. His rant was edited out and the 21-minute show uploaded a second time. The BBC has denied that the audio was edited in an attempt coverup the affair, perhaps in the hope that ramage’s words had not been heard.

BBC sources have expressed disappointment that ramage wasn’t immediately challenged, or that there was no apology for what he said in the original version of the show.