BT Sport presenter Jake Humphrey has made a passionate speech in defence of Karen Carney in the wake of the reaction to comments she made about Leeds United.
Appearing as a pundit on the Amazon Prime Video coverage of Leeds' 5-0 win over West Bromwich Albion, Carney suggested that the coronavirus-enforced break had helped the Whites win promotion last season, and raised fears over possible burnout this term.
The clip of her words was reproduced in a tweet from the club's official Twitter account, sparking a major backlash.
Leeds later issued a statement condemning any abuse that former England international Carney had subsequently received on social media.
Meanwhile, chairman Andrea Radrizzani also apologised, telling talkSPORT: “I’m very sorry Karen was abused on social media.
“I wanted to defend my club and our players from a comment, which I felt was harsh from Karen on air.
“Our tweet wasn’t offensive - simply stating that we won the league by 10 points.
“We honestly didn’t expect such a reaction and we are sorry she experienced that.
“I respect her as a person and a pundit and I hope she understands that we just want to defend our club, we are a family.
“I hope the abuse stops and we can move forward and I hope Karen will be our guest at Elland Road soon - I’d like to meet personally with her.”
Carney has now deleted her personal Twitter account - and Humphrey addressed the matter ahead of Leeds' Premier League match at Tottenham Hotspur.
Standing alongside pundits Jermaine Jenas and Rio Ferdinand, he said: "Just a word of support for our always hard-working, well-researched, excellent colleague Karen Carney.
"Look, whether it's Jermaine, whether it's Rio, whether it's Karen, whether it's any pundit on any sports network, they are literally paid to have an opinion - and that's cool.
"And you don't have to agree with their opinion and you don't have to like their opinion, but the whole point about living in a civil society is that we all have opinions, we might disagree, and it creates debate - and that's cool.
"What's not cool, though, is the horrible misogynistic, sexist, vile abuse that went Karen's way in the hours after her comments on Leeds United Football Club.
"That is not the example of a tolerant society and if we saw anything in 2020, surely we saw the fact that sending people abuse on social media isn't victimless. It hurts people - and Karen has since decided to leave Twitter.
"So perhaps if 2020 and the years before it were all about intolerance and division, 2021 and the years that follow need to be about acceptance and compassion."
