On This Day – 22nd April
It was on this day back in 2004 that Ron Atkinson’s broadcasting career came to an abrupt end.
The former Aston Villa and Manchester United manager resigned from his pundit job at ITV after making a racist remark about Chelsea’s Marcel Desailly after their Champions League Semi-Final with Monaco. They were picked up by microphones and broadcast in several countries in the Middle East.
I won’t type what he said but it is well-documented on the internet. The comments were made after Atkinson and his fellow pundits had given their post-match analysis. The microphones were supposed to have been switched off as the post-match highlights reel was being shown.
Atkinson had been one of the first managers to play several black players. At West Bromwich Albion, he played three black players, dubbed the Three Degrees after a musical trio.
Cyrille Regis, Lawrie Cunningham and Brendon Batson were somewhat of a novelty back in the later 1970’s when there was a lack of black players in the game. Atkinson rightly selected the players based on their ability, ignoring the racial abuse that was rife at the time.
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