Newcastle United have announced they have cancelled Eric Bristow's appearance at St James' Park for a live darts match.
The club made a statement saying "refunds are available for all people who bought tickets."
Eric Bristow sparked outrage after posting offensive tweets about footballers who are victims of child sex abuse Getty
Former darts world champion Eric Bristow has been sacked by Sky Sports after suggesting that footballers who have been sexually abused by coaches when they are younger are not “proper men”.
Bristow, 59, launched an ill-advised Twitter rant on Monday night in relation to the football scandal that has rocked the sport amid a growing number of historical claims of child abuse against coaches.
A decision has already been taken by Sky Sports to axe Bristow from their live darts coverage, having featured for the broadcaster as a guest pundit for a number of years. When contacted by The Independent, a Sky spokesman said: “He was a contributor to our darts coverage in the past but we will not be using him in the future.”
His tirade comes after former Crewe Alexandra striker Andy Woodward chose to waive his anonymity and publicly reveal that he was one of the child abuse victims of convicted paedophile Barry Bennell, who has been jailed on three occasions on child abuse charges.
Since Woodward’s revelations, more than 20 footballers have either publicly or confidentially said that they were abused by football coaches during their careers, and a number of police forces are investigating the matter while the Football Association has launched an internal review into how the matter has been handled over the past 30 years.
Five-time darts world champion Bristow was not so sympathetic though, and he accused footballers of being “wimps” and mistakenly labelled a paedophile as a “poof” in a number of social media posts that have drawn a fierce backlash.
Might be a looney but if some football coach was touching me when i was a kid as i got older i would have went back and sorted that poof out
— Eric Bristow MBE (@ericbristow) November 28, 2016
Dart players tough guys footballers wimps
— Eric Bristow MBE (@ericbristow) November 28, 2016
Bet the rugby boys are ok ha ha
— Eric Bristow MBE (@ericbristow) November 28, 2016
U got to sought him out when u get older or dont look in the mirror glad i am a dart player proper men
— Eric Bristow MBE (@ericbristow) November 28, 2016
Everybody that works on tv is frightened to say the truth because they are frightened to lose their job, life shouldnt be like that
— Eric Bristow MBE (@ericbristow) November 28, 2016
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Eric Bristow MBE ✔ @ericbristow
what i was saying was when the football lads got older and fitter they should have went back and sorted him out
9:42 PM - 28 Nov 2016
739 739 Retweets 1,146 1,146 likes
U people replying don't twist what i sent out, i tell the truth if u dont like it tough
— Eric Bristow MBE (@ericbristow) November 28, 2016
Sorry meant paedo not poof
— Eric Bristow MBE (@ericbristow) November 28, 2016
Bristow wrote: “Might be a looney but if some football coach was touching me when i was a kid as i got older i would have went back and sorted that poof out.
“Dart players tough guys footballers wimps. Bet the rugby boys are ok ha ha.
“U got to sought him out when u get older or don’t look in the mirror glad I am a dart player proper men.
“Everybody that works on TV is frightened to say the truth because they are frightened to lose their job, life shouldn’t be like that.
“What I was saying was when the football lads got older and fitter they should have went back and sorted him out.”