On 3rd February 2022. Football "pundit" and "journalist", Kris Boyd wrote in his Scottish Sun column with regard to the evening befores Glasgow Derby between Celtic and Rangers.“

Look at Celtic. Callum McGregor played with a fractured cheekbone. The fact he managed to get through the 90 minutes without anyone testing out that face mask is another story, but his commitment to the team was tremendous,”

His comments left many wondering how a face mask can be "tested" and led people to quite correctly insinuate, that a face mask can only be tested by direct contact to the head area, such deliberate contact is forbidden under FIFA rules.

Mr Boyd then attempted to justify his statement, by further writing:

“I wrote: “The fact he managed to get through the 90 minutes without anyone testing out that face mask is another story, but his commitment to the team was tremendous.”

“Some have taken that line to mean I wanted one of the Rangers players to intentionally try and hurt the midfielder. However, that is absolutely and unequivocally not the case. It was simply meant as a criticism of the Rangers players for their failure to get close to McGregor.”

We the undersigned state that:

Getting close to Mcgregor and testing out his face mask are two completely different statements and that if Boyd did indeed mean that the players should have perhaps marked Mcgregor or even tracked his runs or closed him down quicker, then he should have said that, testing out a facemask means what it reads and to on one level cheat and on another more insidious level further injure the named player.

Given all this we would like Mr Boyd to be treated by his employers as any of us would be if we made such an insidious and malicious comment and to be removed from his role as a Sky Sports pundit. Insights such as this, the football fans watching can well do without.