Wendy Toms has addressed comments made about her during the 2011 sexism row that saw Andy Gray sacked from his role at Sky Sports. 

Toms, who was the Premier League’s first female refereeing official in 1997, was called ‘f***ing hopless’ by Gray in a studio chat that was later leaked. 

The infamous incident saw Gray and colleague Richard Keys lose their jobs at Sky Sports for sexist comments about referees Sian Massey-Ellis and Toms.

It is a moment and a day that Toms, who sat down with Mail Sport for a wide-ranging interview about her career, remembers well.

Wendy Toms has opened up to Mail Sport on the infamous sexism row at Sky back in 2011

Gray (right), who was sacked by Sky back in 2011 over the sexism scandal, called Toms ‘f***ing hopeless’, while colleague Richard Keys (left) later resigned from his role over his own remarks

Mail Sport has launched a campaign to stop the abuse of referees at all levels of the game

‘The comment was directed at someone else, Amy Fearne,’ she reveals.

‘She had a game and they weren’t happy with her performance. But they used my name and never thought it was someone totally different.

‘It was really strange. I phoned Amy and said, “What’s going on?” She said, “Yeah I didn’t have the best of games”. I said, “I noticed, your name wasn’t mentioned but mine was – thanks for that!”

‘I don’t understand why he (Gray) just had a beef about women in football. And sometimes you get that, that people just don’t want women in football.

‘But comments like that brought to a head comments that were being said about females. It had to, enough was enough.’

Keys (right) and Gray made misogynistic about the ability of female assistant Sian Massey-Ellis (left), as well as Toms, back in 2011 during coverage of Liverpool’s 3-0 win away at Wolves

Toms wants to see more women in top refereeing positions, and said the Keys-Gray incident was proof that ‘enough is enough’ of comments disrespecting the ability of female officials

In January 2011, Keys, 66, resigned and Gray, 68, was sacked after controversial comments over whether women were fit to officiate at matches – for which they later apologised.

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A Mail on Sunday investigation revealed an audio tape of Keys and Gray talking about Massey-Ellis and other female assistant referees off-air during Liverpool’s 3-0 win at Wolves 12 years ago.

Keys was recorded saying: ‘Somebody better get down there and explain offside to her (Massey),’ while Gray replied: ‘Yeah, I know. Can you believe that? Female linesman. Forget what I said – they probably don’t know the offside rule.’

Keys then stated: ‘Course they don’t’ and Gray responded: ‘Why is there a female linesman? Somebody’s f***** up big.’ 

Toms (centre) rose through the ranks and up to the top flight in England after taking a refereeing course in Cyprus, where her then-husband was stationed with the RAF

Gray and Keys later opened up on their experience in an interview with Piers Morgan (right)

It is a day that Toms remembers well, and both Keys and Gray addressed the leaked chat in detail in an interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV last year.

‘I’ve said many times to friends, given the same circumstances, of course I would’ve done things differently,’ Keys said. 

‘You have to factor in mental health, which people are too quick to dismiss, less so now. 

‘For the first time in my life I found myself in a very difficult place and I couldn’t get my head round it. It didn’t seem that significant to start the forest fire that was engulfing us.’

For his part, Gray went on to confess that without his family ‘I don’t know what would have happened’ as he discussed his mental health battle in a wide-ranging interview.

‘I suddenly found myself in a really dark place,’ Gray said. ‘I knew I had done something wrong, of course I did, but I couldn’t compute it. My head was gone. If it wasn’t for my wife I don’t know what would have happened.

‘I was close to going down the garden, I had a pond, with a bottle and a few pills one day. I was that bad.

‘People who know me will think I’m kidding… horrible [time]. I couldn’t work it out. For two weeks I couldn’t leave the house, just surrounded by press and media. Really weird – but I’m through it now.’