Mocking Ronaldo for missing penalty: British TV station pays a heavy price
At EURO 2024, Cristiano Ronaldo had a great chance to become the oldest player to score at EURO. Unfortunately, the Portuguese superstar missed a penalty in the 105th minute in the match against Slovenia. CR7 was unable to beat Jan Oblak on the opposite side.
BBC’s outrageous caption of Ronaldo’s missed penalty
When analyzing this match, the British BBC surprised everyone by captioning CR7’s shot with the words “Misstiano Penaldo”. This phrase is a combination of “Miss penalty” (meaning missed penalty) and “Cristiano Ronaldo” and is believed to be intended to mock and insult the Portuguese superstar.
Even John Terry, former England defender, said: “BBC, that’s a disgrace.” Of course, this over-the-top joke has left one of the UK’s most popular TV stations in a dire situation. They have received hundreds of thousands of angry complaints from Ronaldo’s supporters.
A movement to boycott BBC programmes was even created. Realising the situation was not good, the TV station was forced to speak up to defend the situation.
“It was a play on words that we used many times on the Match of the Day show. We assure you that the line was not meant to mock Ronaldo. In fact, throughout the show, we said many positive things about Ronaldo including:
– In his pre-match preparation, Jose Fonte highlighted Ronaldo’s dedication in training and said that is why he is one of the best players of all time.
– In the first half, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer analyzed Ronaldo’s movement at length, calling it “absolutely fantastic”.
– After the penalty shootout, Lineker and Shearer continued to mention Ronaldo with confidence and courage when continuing to take the responsibility of taking the penalty shootout.
– No expert has criticized Ronaldo too much and always has respect for the Portuguese superstar. However, we would like to receive opinions from TV viewers”.
However, this explanation is just a drop in the bucket compared to the anger on social networks. Currently, BBC’s social media accounts are losing followers because people cannot accept the way this TV station “jokes on the pain of others”, especially with a football legend like CR7.