For years, whenever new female employees walked through the doors of Sky Sports, they were given an important briefing by their more seasoned colleagues: Watch out for Richard Keys.

His reputation for misogyny and inappropriate language was an open secret.

And long before he left the broadcaster in disgrace in 2011 – after sexist comments he and co-host Andy Gray made about a female referee when they thought their microphones were off – the sisterhood at Sky Sports made sure to look after their own.

Even during the Nineties and early Noughties, when misogyny in the media was still rife and Keys was riding high presenting the channel’s flagship Super Sunday show and fronting its Champions League coverage, a source recalls how Keys ‘took it to the extreme’ in terms of his sexist behaviour.

But the problem for female staff was that he was also very powerful. ‘He ruled the roost,’ they said. ‘He ran the show and got away with whatever he wanted.’

One presenter, who I have agreed not to name, goes further. ‘Richard Keys is the most awful and vile man I have ever worked with, and I’ve been around a long time,’ they said. ‘There didn’t appear to be a desire to rein him in, despite the words he would use as he and Andy Gray performed to one another, trying to make one another laugh. 

'He was a dinosaur back then and we are talking the early Noughties. Today you can’t bump into a Sky Sports employee from then and not have a conversation about Richard. Some don’t want to give him the oxygen, others are still cross at how awful he was.’

Andy Gray and Richard Keys during their TalkSport days. Today, the pair are holed up in Qatar where they present on BeIN Sports, writes Katie Hind

Gabby Logan pitch-side ahead of a UEFA Champions League match

And last week, those women were no doubt reminded of the horror of working for Keys, 68, when he posted a thoughtless comment online about former Sky Sports host Gabby Logan – hours after the world had learned of the death of her beloved father, Welsh football legend Terry Yorath.

‘Sad to hear the news of Terry Yorath’s passing,’ wrote Keys on X, in a post viewed more than nine million times. ‘He was a warrior & won fans over wherever he played. He was great for us at Coventry & the reason I got Gabby a job at Sky. I had no idea who she was when we met but I knew her dad. RIP Terry. Your daughter did you proud.’

The post prompted outrage. TNT Sports presenter Laura Woods led the charge against Keys, branding him a ‘t**t’. Dan Walker, a close friend of Match Of The Day host Gabby from his time at the BBC, wrote: ‘Richard, just imagine what it would be like for Gabby, or a member of her family, to read this. I’m hoping you have just worded this badly and it isn’t a dig at a really difficult time. There is still time to change it.’