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Gary Neville's comments about Martinelli hit by flood of complaints to Ofcom

  /  autty

Gary Neville's criticism of Gabriel Martinelli's shove on the injured Conor Bradley during Arsenal's goalless draw with Liverpool led to a remarkable 576 complaints being made against the Sky Sports co-commentator with Ofcom.

It was towards the end of that clash at the Emirates Stadium when Martinelli tried to push Bradley off the pitch when he was down by the touchline, leading to widespread criticism as the 22-year-old full back was then stretchered away.

Martinelli later apologised, but only after Neville had described the incident as 'disgraceful' on air.

The former Manchester United full back said: 'You can't push him off the pitch. You cannot do that. That is so poor. An apology is needed. Bradley is being stretchered off. I'm fuming with Martinelli to be honest.

'I don't know how the Liverpool players didn't go over and absolutely whack him to be honest with you and take a red card. Absolutely disgraceful, that.'

Sources at Ofcom have confirmed to Daily Mail Sport that the complaints they received relate to the comments made by Neville.

Ofcom reveal weekly which transmissions receive more than 50 complaints from viewers and between January 6 and 12, Sky's coverage of Arsenal's clash with Liverpool received 576. There has not yet been a higher total in 2026.

Last year, it took just 938 complaints to reach Ofcom's 2025 top 10 - which was for The Brit Awards in March over Sabrina Carpenter's dance routine and Charli XCX's outfit. Love Island topped the table with 3,547 complaints related to alleged bullying behaviour towards contestant Shakira. Eight of the top 10 most-complained about moments were shown on the BBC, ITV or Channel 5.

Neville was not the only one to criticise Martinelli. Roy Keane also described it as an 'absolute disgrace' while Daniel Sturridge said: 'It's disappointing to see. There's passion and there's being a winner, there's wanting to help your team-mates, but you've got to be respectful as a footballer.'

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta defended Martinelli afterwards, insisting he would never have pushed Bradley had he known he was seriously injured.

Martinelli was booed in his next appearance in the FA Cup away at Portsmouth – and the 24-year-old scored a hat-trick in that 4-1 victory.