Jamie Carragher and 5 other pundits who courted controversy

#5 Robbie Earle

Robbie Earle (pictured with Edgar Davids) was fired by ITV in 2010 following a World Cup ticket scandal

Former Wimbledon and Jamaica midfielder Robbie Earle moved into the world of sports journalism and punditry after his retirement in 2000 and appeared to be doing well for himself, working for channels such as BBC and ESPN and regularly appearing on ITV’s coverage of football.

One big mistake in 2010 ended all that, though, and cost him his job with the broadcaster.

As part of his role as a pundit with ITV for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Earle was given free tickets for games during the tournament – tickets that were supposed to be given away to family and friends of the presenter. Unfortunately for Earle, tickets he gave away for the match between Holland and Denmark ended up in the wrong hands.

Earle’s allocation for the game was sold to Dutch company Bavaria Brewing – who sent 36 women wearing orange mini-dresses to the game as part of an ambush marketing scheme. The women were ejected from the stadium as such marketing was in breach of FIFA rules, and when the incident was traced back to Earle, he was fired by ITV.

Earle apologised for the incident but claimed he’d given the tickets to a friend, who then sold them to the brewing company, and described his actions as “naive” – but the public hardly had sympathy for him when it emerged he’d been given 400 tickets for the tournament – including 40 for the final – that had an RRP of around £70,000.