Rio Ferdinand slams 'prehistoric' Sky duo

England captain Rio Ferdinand has slammed the main Sky Sports presenters for their "prehistoric" views on women officials and executives in football.

Yesterday, Richard Keys and Andy Gray were stood down by Sky from presenting Bolton Wanderers' clash with Chelsea after their disparaging comments about assistant referee Sian Massey and West Ham United vice chairman Karren Brady.

Sky Sports managing director Barney Francis described the two men's comments as "inexcusable from anyone at Sky regardless of their role or seniority".

Writing yesterday on Twitter, Ferdinand praised Massey and added: "I'm all for women refereeing in football, discrimination should not happen in our game at all...prehistoric views if u think otherwise (sic)."

Also this week, a meeting of senior European football officials, organised by Uefa and the Football Association, concluded that football is "institutionally sexist" and run by an "old boys' club" across the continent.

The remarks by Keys and Gray, which were recorded before the match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Liverpool but not broadcast, included Gray claiming "somebody's f**ked up big" by appointing Massey. Keys added that Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish "will go potty" at the decision.

In response, Brady said that it made her "blood boil" to hear the sexist views and said it is "categorically wrong" that females in football are only judged by their gender.