Sky Sports apologise to Millwall after controversial coverage of their Championship clash against QPR
- Millwall had been seeking to stop Sky broadcasting home game against Watford
- The club were concerned due to Sky’s coverage of their fixture against QPR
- Sky acknowledged there was an imbalance and have apologised to the club
Sky Sports have apologised to Millwall for the controversial coverage of their Championship clash against Queens Park Rangers earlier this month.
Sportsmail has led the way with the dispute, which led to Millwall seeking to block Sky from televising their home clash against Watford on December 29 due to concerns about the coverage of their home game versus QPR, which centred around the club’s previous game against Derby at the Den, where supporters booed the now customary anti-racism gesture of taking the knee before kick off.
Sky covered the story extensively, but Millwall had a number of gripes with the network’s coverage – including a story on the broadcaster’s website prior to the game against QPR that suggested Lions players would still take a knee – despite a joint statement from both clubs that they would not perform the gesture but hold up an anti-discrimination banner.
Millwall and QPR players held up an anti-discrimination banner before their league fixture
Millwall players wore shirts with the ‘Kick it out’ logo on them for the Championship clash
Millwall refuted the story during the day, but the broadcasters refused to amend the article.
There was also anger at pre-match comments during Sky’s on-air coverage of the match about a letter that was handed out to supporters urging them to behave.
But in peace talks that included Sky, Millwall and the EFL, it is understood the network acknowledged that there was an imbalance to the kneeling story while the broadcasters also acknowledged that the discussion around the letter was miscommunicated.
A Millwall statement read: ‘The club has accepted that apology and considers this issue now closed. Millwall hopes for a more mutually beneficial relationship with Sky Sports moving forward.’