Mail’s Oliver Holt hits out at Sky Sports on West Ham, Zouma vs Newcastle’s Saudi takeover hypocrisy
The reaction to West Ham and Kurt Zouma following the cat kicking has “highlighted a hypocrisy” on outrage in football, says the Daily Mail’s Oliver Holt.
The Hammers defender has been rightly denounced after video emerged of him hitting his cat, and manager David Moyes has also come in for criticism for his decision to not drop the Frenchman from the team.
West Ham released a statement on their website to say the player has been fined and the money will go to animal welfare charities, but, as well as Zouma and the club losing sponsorship deals, there have been calls for him to be sacked, including by ex-England keeper Chris Kirkland (talkSPORT) who caused more upset by claiming the issue was worse than racism (Mirror).
This has lead to questions being asked about the level of opprobrium that has been directed at this incident compared to other controversies in the game, with Michail Antonio raising the point last week that the same backlash does not occur after racial abuse cases (Sky Sports).
Writing in the Mail on Sunday Holt says: “I watched a clip on Sky Sports News where two presenters were discussing the Zouma incident in earnest, almost funereal, tones and relaying the latest developments about how some sponsors were… horrified that Zouma had not been immediately banished to the outer reaches of the galaxy.
He compared the coverage to the Saudi takeover of Newcastle in October: “One of the two presenters is a Newcastle fan. It was only a few months ago that he was posting pictures on his social media account — complete with crying with laughter emojis — of cans of beer being delivered to him at the Sky studios so he could better celebrate.
Referring to Saudi leader Mohammad bin Salman he went on: “Sky Sports and the Premier League will fawn over a man like that and welcome him with open arms… and in the next breath, they will destroy a man for kicking a cat.”
Plenty of criticism to go round
It seems like every step in the argument around the Zouma case has compounded the situation and caused further offence.
The ex-Chelsea defender upset many people by abusing his cats and he cannot be defended for that, but the manager could have avoided a lot of subsequent problems by taking him out of the team for the Watford game.
The perception that the 27-year-old was getting away with it lead to many going into overdrive on their outrage and losing perspective.
The aforementioned Kirkland did his mental health advocacy no favours by saying Zouma “deserved everything he gets” and then offended many by apparently dismissing racism cases, leaving people like Antonio to justifiably wonder where this fervour is when they are the ones being abused.
The Sky Sports presenter Holt refers to appears to be Pete Graves who indeed posted on his Twitter account the beers photo, and whose profile picture is himself smiling in front of an image of the club’s badge, Mike Ashley, Amanda Staveley and bin Salman.
Too often the stance that people take is dictated by how much it affects them, or whose team it will benefit, rather than the merits of the issue.
When the attempted European Super League breakaway happened last year, nearly everyone united in outrage because they all felt they were on the losing side, and as Patrick Bamford said at the time to Sky Sports: “It’s a shame it’s not like that with all the things that go wrong… racism and stuff like that”.
In other West Ham news, this key performer is reportedly set to sign a new three-year deal.