The BBC have been forced to address the backlash over a recent joke made about Cristiano Ronaldo during their Euro 2024 coverage. Ronaldo, who had a tournament to forget, struggled to find his form and failed to score a single goal from open play. His disappointing performance included a missed penalty against Slovenia in extra […]
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The BBC have been forced to address the backlash over a recent joke made about Cristiano Ronaldo during their Euro 2024 coverage.
Ronaldo, who had a tournament to forget, struggled to find his form and failed to score a single goal from open play.
His disappointing performance included a missed penalty against Slovenia in extra time during the Round of 16.
During the BBC’s coverage of the match, they displayed a caption that read “Misstiano Penaldo” to highlight Ronaldo’s missed penalty.
What was intended as a light-hearted joke with a play on words quickly received significant backlash from fans and viewers.
In response to the severe backlash, the BBC released a statement clarifying their intentions and explaining that the joke was meant to be harmless.
They emphasised their positive coverage of Ronaldo throughout the game. The statement read (via talkSPORT):
“The caption was simply intended as a play on words, which we have done many times before on Match Of The Day analysis graphics. There was no offence intended toward Cristiano Ronaldo.
“In fact, throughout the programme we spoke favourably about Ronaldo on a number of occasions, including:
“1. In the pre-match build-up when Jose Fonte highlighted Ronaldo’s dedication to training, saying it’s why ‘he’s one of the best-ever’.
“2. At half-time Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer did a long analysis run on Ronaldo’s movement, praising it as ‘absolutely fantastic’.
“3. After the penalty shoot-out, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer both referenced Ronaldo’s courage and self-belief to step forward and take a penalty.
“At no point were the pundits overly critical of Ronaldo and in the context of the programme overall, the tone was consistently respectful towards him.
Ronaldo dropped yet another stinker in the quarter-finals against France which ended up in Portugal getting knocked out.
Despite scoring his penalty in the shootout, Ronaldo’s overall performance was ineffective.
Many argued that Portugal’s fate might have been different had Ronaldo taken a more selfless approach and allowed younger players to start ahead of him.
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