Now, ex-footie commentator Keys facing racism charge for labelling black player ‘choco’

LONDON - Former Sky Sports football commentator Richard Keys has attracted more controversy by allegedly calling a black footballer ‘choco’ eleven years ago

Weeks after sexist behaviour cost him his job at Sky Sports, Keys now faces a charge of racism after a video tape revealed that he had called Jamaican-born football player David Johnson ‘Choco Jocko’

According to the Daily Mail, Keys and former footballers Graeme Souness and Ray Wilkins are heard discussing Johnson, a striker at Nottingham Forest, who was tipped to play for Scotland before retiring injured.

Wilkins starts asking a question before Souness, himself a Scot, interrupts, saying sarcastically: ‘He looks like a Jock, doesn’t he?’Keys replies: ‘Choco Jocko.’

Now working as a football agent, 34-year-old Johnson said he was ‘very disappointed’ by the comments.

“If I’d have heard him say that at the time I would have been absolutely furious,” he adds.

Keys was in trouble last month, along with co-presenter Andy Gray, for his sexist remarks about female linesman and assistant referee Sian Massey.

However, friends of Keys have claimed someone in television had a grudge against him and suggested the recording had been edited to make him look bad.

Keys himself said: ‘I absolutely refute any suggestion of any racism. (ANI)