Thursday, May 06, 2021
Broadcaster welcomes the withdrawal of experts
Aogo lets job rest after verbal misstep
First, a racist message from Jens Lehmann to Dennis Aogo causes a stir, now after Lehmann, Aogo has also lost his job as a TV expert for the time being. Officially at your own request, but also after an ugly and avoidable statement.
One day after the fuss about a racist message from Jens Lehmann to him, the former national soccer player Dennis Aogo took action because of his own verbal misstep. For the time being, the ex-professional will no longer appear as an expert at Sky. “Dennis Aogo has decided to leave his expert work at Sky to rest for the time being. We think this is right,” said a statement from the TV broadcaster.
The 34-year-old Aogo had previously regretted that he had used the expression “train to the point of gassing” on Tuesday evening as a Sky expert when broadcasting the Champions League semi-final match between Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain.
The “Bild” said Aogo: “Of course, this word must not be used in any context. That was a big mistake, I can only sincerely apologize for it.” During their rule, the National Socialists systematically murdered millions of people in gas chambers in concentration camps. Poison gas had previously been used in the First World War.
“Dennis Aogo has apologized and is aware of the scope of his statement, which he very much regrets,” Sky wrote in the statement. “He is an excellent expert on our team, whom we appreciate very much, but he made a big mistake. He wants to learn from this.” The station takes the incident as an occasion and wants to “raise awareness of the use of language among all of our employees,” it said. Aogo had been sharply criticized for his statement.
Lehmann sends the next statement
The statement may also have come into focus because a message to him the day before had noticeable consequences for Jens Lehmann. Aogo had published a WhatsApp message from Lehmann on Wednesday in which the former national goalkeeper asked: “Is Dennis actually your quota black?” The sentence was mistaken with a laughing smiley in front of the question mark. Lehmann then lost his supervisory board position at Bundesliga club Hertha BSC on the same day. Sky and Sport1 announced that they no longer want to invite the 51-year-old as a guest on their television programs.
Today Lehmann spoke up again via Twitter and showed remorse. “You mustn’t make such slogans, otherwise they will become socially acceptable,” he wrote. “I would like to apologize once again from the bottom of my heart, I deeply regret what I said and ask for forgiveness from everyone who has felt hurt by it.” However, there was also criticism for this statement, as the former goalkeeper with “who has felt hurt by it” limits the circle of those he asks for forgiveness, so he blames the recipient of his racist statement instead of leaving it to him , at the sender.
Lehmann had previously apologized to Aogo and declared publicly: “In a private message from my cell phone to Dennis Aogo, an impression was created for which I apologized in conversation with Dennis,” Lehmann wrote on Twitter. “As a former national player, he is very knowledgeable and has a great presence and brings odds to Sky.” With his renewed apology, Lehmann now also admitted his unacceptable behavior in terms of content.
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