Former Aston Villa load player Robert Snodgrass has hit out at Sky Sports after claiming that the media giants were ‘trying to get a bite out of him’ freetips.com reports today.
Snodgrass was responding to a report by Sky Sports following an incident with UK anti-doping officials. An Independent Regulatory Commission had handed down a one-match ban and a fine to the player following an incident where the anti-doping testers had been attended a match at which Snodgrass had been a player.
It is alleged that Snodgrass hit out at the officials with abusive and/or insulting language, apparently having ask them ‘Didn’t they have anything better to do?’ and then swore at them. For this, the player was handed down a fine of £30,000 and given a one-match suspension, which is not currently in force while he considers his options. That being said, Snodgrass wasn’t approached to undertake a doping test, and neither has he refused to take a doping test, so it isn’t clear what prompted the comments.
However, it was to Sky Sports, following their coverage of the incident that Snodgrass saved his most castigating of comments. Snodgrass is to have said “Sky you’re looking for a bite…… I ain’t giving you it! The way you wrote this is sloppy and isn’t the truth. The season must be finished and clutching for stories…. disappointing! Think I might cancel my sports channels now.“
The comments came on social media from Snodgrass following the incident, and it is clear that he feels strongly about the report. Snodgrass claims that anti-doping officials overhead some banter between players and took it out of context to bring the complaint. He also stated that perhaps they had misheard what he had said as a result of his Scottish accent. He said “as a Scotsman, my accent can sometimes be difficult for people to understand” He claims the incident occurred in a noisy environment as the players were leaving the dressing room. So he fully believes that the comments were not as they were interpreted by the officials.
Aston Villa is gearing up for championship play off’s and any loss of players to the squad is going to have a dramatic effect on their chances at chaining promotion back to the premiership. The team will be facing Derby in a midlands clash on bank holiday Monday, and it is not clear whether Snodgrass will be cleared for the contest. Although as the FA has already stated his ban is currently pending a review as to whether he will lodge an appeal or not. So it is possible that he could still see play. The Championship play-offs final could secure a windfall of some £180M for the winning club, and so Villa will definitely want to be fielding their best time for the game. Villa is currently the team on form having had a run of ten winning matches in a row to close out the season; now they just need to win the big one.