Sky Sports has been forced to remove a contentious video from its platforms following a significant backlash from Scottish football fans. The segment featured pundit and former Tottenham midfielder Jamie O'Hara in a heated debate with a Celtic supporter, where he made the inflammatory claim that League One side Stockport County would win the Scottish Premiership.
The Heated On-Air Clash
The discussion on Sky Sports News initially centred on Celtic's search for a new manager after Brendan Rodgers' departure. The conversation turned to candidate Wilfried Nancy, the boss of MLS side Columbus Crew. Celtic podcaster Paul John Dykes defended the potential appointment, calling Nancy a 'forward thinking and progressive coach' and a 'football philosopher', while emphasising that Celtic remain a 'massive draw' for any manager.
O'Hara vehemently disagreed, stating that Celtic could not be considered a 'big club' if they were looking to recruit a manager from Major League Soccer. 'What manager in the MLS gets a massive job?' O'Hara questioned. Dykes countered this argument by pointing to the immense success of Ange Postecoglou, who joined Celtic from the Japanese J-League and later moved to Tottenham, where he ended their 17-year trophy drought by winning the Europa League.
Opta Rankings and the Stockport County Claim
The debate intensified when O'Hara cited recent Opta power rankings, which placed the Scottish Premiership as the 39th strongest league in the world, two places below England's League One. Seizing on this statistic, O'Hara then made his most controversial assertion.
'This season Stockport County are top of League One,' O'Hara stated. 'Stockport County would go and win the Scottish Premier League this year, they would, they would win the Premier League.' He based this on his own viewing of Celtic and Rangers this season. Dykes immediately labelled the claim as 'nonsense' and told O'Hara he had 'made a fool of yourself'.
Backlash and Deletion
The clip, originally posted on social media and the Sky Sports website, was swiftly taken down after it provoked outrage among fans. Supporters of the Scottish game accused Sky Sports, the league's primary broadcaster, of disrespect. One fan wrote on social media that it was 'clear evidence that Sky Sports... use their platform to mock us', while another questioned how a Sky pundit could so openly disparage a product that the network itself sells to subscribers.
The incident has highlighted the sensitive nature of the relationship between Scottish football and its broadcast partners. This is particularly acute given the SPFL's ongoing £30 million per season broadcasting deal with Sky Sports, which grants the network rights to show 60 live Premiership matches per season until the 2028/29 campaign.
