Clashes between clubs and sports media are nothing new in the global football landscape, and in the last day, a new affair is stirring Britain, following a tweet on Leeds United’s Twitter account against Amazon commentator Karen Carney.
The 33-year-old Carney, who previously played for England, claimed that Leeds had benefited from the forced Corona lag last season to advance to the Premier League, as the club’s players had a chance to rest from the intense style of Marcelo Bailesa, whose many teams collapsed .
Leeds finished 2019/20 in first place in the Championship, with a 10-point difference from runner-up West Bromwich Albion, and Carney said of it: “They have surpassed them all and the credit goes to them. “The truth is that I think they went up thanks to the Corona conditions, because it gave them some rest, and I do not know if they would have been successful without this break.”
Leeds less liked the commentator’s statement, stinging her with the next tweet and mentioning that they ended the season by a gap of 10 points at the top, which caused a stir. But the owner, Andrea Redricani, Backed the tweet: “I take responsibility for the club’s tweet. For me this reaction is completely unnecessary and disrespectful towards the club and especially towards the hard and fantastic work of the players and coaches on the pitch in the last two seasons, which is reflected in all the statistics.”
🤢🤮
– Mateusz Klich (@ Cli5hy) December 29, 2020
But although Carney has drawn quite a bit of criticism from Leeds fans, many have attacked the club for the tweet, including former club stopper Rio Ferdinand calling for it to be deleted. Emma Sanders from the BBC wrote: “It’s not a sound. There is no need to do it for commentators, she is one of the best in the field and always backs up her arguments. It only invites unjustified abuse on a platform that is already too toxic.” Journalist Jerry O’Tellie added: “A huge club like Leeds can’t tweet like that, they had to choose the words carefully.”
In addition, a number of reporters responded to Leeds’ tweet, claiming that quite a few male commentators had said exactly the same things Karni had said in the past, but did not get the “shaming” she experienced.
Agree … delete tweet!
– Rio Ferdinand (@ rioferdy5) December 29, 2020
Jesus. The person tweeting on behalf of huge club, @LUFC, can not have had to choose their exact wording perfectly on a freezing cold night on live TV, neither can they have been on the end of a Twitter pile on and experienced the consequences of abuse on mass scale.
– Jacqui Oatley (@JacquiOatley) December 29, 2020
And what do you think?