Social justice and social media sensation Marcus Rashford looks to have dropped an embarrassing howler on Twitter after fans spotted what appeared to be a management company writing a tweet for him.
Manchester United and England forward Rashford prides himself on his passion, authenticity and nice-guy brand on the platform, famously using it to urge the UK government to spend millions on providing free school meals and offering fans personal thanks for their support on issues close to his heart.
While many among the earnest 23-year-old’s following of well over five million lap up his posts, others have been accused of cynicism for suggesting that Rashford may outsource some of the tweets.
Those eagle-eyed readers have frequently claimed to have spotted tell-tale signs within tweets, including one example when his account failed to spell ‘Paralympics’ correctly this summer.
| NEW: Marcus Rashford has been caught not actually being the one posting his own tweets. His management company have now deleted their account following the error pic.twitter.com/rUU7htfEwr
Now a tweet identical to one post by Rashford, speaking about his return to United training and missing out the word ‘light’, has aroused further suspicions.
“I suppose I was so happy to tell everybody [about my comeback from injury that] I missed a word,” reads the corrective tweet, which was purportedly spotted being posted – perhaps accidentally – by an account under the name ‘D N May Sports Mgt’.
That group is listed as a company based in Manchester with Rashford and other players among its roster.
Can Footballers please run their accounts!! This PR nonsense is so cringe
“Happy Monday,” the original tweet read. “I see the doctor on Friday for a consultation. All being well, I will get the green to join in with contract training again.”
Thousands of fans, ranging from the angered to the amused and disbelieving, swiftly picked up on the potential faux pas.
“If you’re going to be this super-friendly guy on social media, at least do it yourself,” replied one United fan, while another pleaded: “Can footballers please run their accounts? This PR nonsense is so cringe.”
Others were more blithely forgiving. “We don’t care,” assured one. “We’re just happy to see you and want you back, my king.”
The tweet materialized in the aftermath of United playmaker Bruno Fernandes bizarrely producing a social media post resembling an essay.
Portugal maestro Fernandes went into great length to address the relatively harmless penalty he missed in United’s shock defeat at home to Aston Villa in the Premier League on Saturday, leaving readers wondering whether he had really taken the time to personally write an eloquent and needlessly elaborate version of his views.
The apology culture that’s engulfing football would be ok if it came from a genuine place . However more often than not it’s a smokescreen and diversion tactic designed to mask a crap performance by experts!! Lose a game = crisis comms meet! How do we spin this one our way?
It’s embarrassing! They need to sack their PR people , speak with some authenticity and get on with it . I’m going to go big on this in the next few weeks . They’ve all got these comms managers , that are creating personalities that don’t exist ! https://t.co/wWxYIykVQT
When he was asked on Monday whether players should be publicly apologizing for missing penalties in such a way, United legend and top UK TV pundit Gary Neville said an “apology culture” exists and seethed: “It’s embarrassing.
“They need to sack their PR people, speak with some authenticity and get on with it.
“I’m going to go big on this in the next few weeks. They’ve all got these comms managers that are creating personalities that don’t exist.”
Two days after pulling out of a rematch, Aljamain Sterling has accused Petr Yan of targeting his fiancee in their UFC title scandal – and the Russian has branded him a coward again as their long-standing online row contines.
A rematch between the Jamaican-American and Yan had been planned for October 30 at UFC 267 after Sterling became the elite MMA championship’s bantamweight king earlier this year when his rival was disqualified for an illegal knee in the fourth round of their clash, when the dethroned champion appearing to be ahead on the cards.
An immediate chance to win back his strap was not forthcoming for Yan, and a spat raged between the duo.
When Sterling held up the division to complete neck surgery, ‘No Mercy’ accused him of being scared of a second meeting.
UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling has been pulled from his title defense against Petr Yan at UFC 267, sources tell @bokamotoESPN.
Sterling was denied medical clearance by doctors and UFC is discussing the creation of an interim title in Sterling’s absence, per sources. pic.twitter.com/WpZJHAmIeF
That had been finally penciled in for a month from now. But the New York native backed out at the weekend, blaming “lingering” issues with his neck while failing to set a timetable for the bout to be rescheduled.
Yan released a video on Instagram to address the matter, calling Sterling “a sneaky coward” and pledging not to wait for him.
Sterling has now hit back, taking to Twitter to claim that the 28-year-old “p*ssy” has blocked him on social media “after talking sh*t about me and my fiancée”.
“Guess he was upset I didn’t respond the way he wanted me to,” Sterling added, before signing off with a #NoMercy hashtag.
“Stop lying,” Yan blasted back. “I will never say anything bad about someone’s family,”in the replies section this morning.
“And yes, you are blocked until you will grow the balls to fight me. For now, I’m done wasting my time on you, coward.”
Stop lying I will never say anything bad about someone’s family. And yes you are blocked until you will grow the balls to fight me, for now I’m done wasting my time on you coward
Popular Yan has found no end of backers following that correspondence.
His comment has been liked almost 2,000 times within hours, with many MMA fans telling Stirling to “give up the belt”.
“The UFC needs to strip Aljo immediately,” said one. “Or make an interim belt starlight away for the next event, so the next time this fake champ pulls out he is definitely stripped of what doesn’t belong to him in the first place.”
Ufc needs to strip aljo immediately. Or make an interim belt starlight away for the next event. So the next time this fake champ pulls out he is definitely stripped of what doesn't belong to him in the first place.
An investigation has been launched after footage emerged that appeared to show a team’s away fans being blocked from entering a stadium amid a chaotic clash with police, with one account alleging that supporters were mistreated.
Footage shared by Sergey Kulakov, the general manager of Shinnik Yaroslavl, showed a group of his club’s fans being kept behind barriers outside Vladimir Torpedo’s stadium before a Russian Football National League (FNL) 2 match on Sunday.
Security personnel in riot gear formed a line and officers were seen moving towards the mob before dragging individuals away and into a van in what Kulakov claims was a late decision to block the traveling supporters from attending the match.
“It turns out that in Vladimir you cannot root for the teams that come to their city,” said Kulakov, providing an overhead view of the fractious scenes.
“At least, that’s what the [Torpedo] security officer thinks, who said at the pre-match meeting: ‘We will not let them in.’ The man said [it], the man did [it].”
Kulakov appeared to claim that Shinnik had told him the order was partly made by the Rospotrebnadzor – the Russian ministry for consumer rights and human welfare.
“He said the same thing on the eve of the game, justifying the decision [by saying] the ban [was imposed by] Rospotrebnadzor,” said Kulakov.
“FC Shinnik made an official request [to see] the so-called decision of Rospotrebnadzor, but did not receive it since such a decision does not exist.
“Yesterday, we agreed with the director of the club that the fans would be allowed in as, I repeat, there [were] no decisions [by] Rospotrebnadzor.”
Kulakov added that he had a longstanding “good relationship” with his Torpedo counterparts, but warned that the actions of individual club employees “cannot be called anything other than lawlessness.”
“We will contact the RFU and the FNL on this issue,” he pledged. “Football for the fans.”
Torpedo manager Alexander Akimov, who oversaw a 2-0 defeat for his lowly side against the runaway league leaders, appeared to suggest that Shinnik fans had arranged a procession dangerously near a centuries-old architectural monument that belonged to the club.
“We were waiting for the fans in a normal, adequate manner,” he told newsvladimir. “Law enforcement officers did the right thing to detain them.”
A fan account produced a photo showing an alternative view of the confrontation and said that away fans routinely have their “access blocked” regardless of “whether citizens violate the law or not”.
“Fans of Shinnik go to Vladimir… in an organized group on two buses of about 100 people,” it alleged. “The rest get there on their own.
“Even at the entrance to the city on the buses, they notice that an unknown car is following them. They arrive at a place not far from the stadium and organize a five-to-seven-minute walk to [the ground]. The car continues to follow the fans.
“When approaching the stadium, a policeman with a megaphone suddenly appears and shouts loudly. Some do not notice him, but most of them go to the sidewalk.
“Guest fans reach the stadium, pass through the frames of metal detectors and see the controllers waiting in the territory of the arena. Suddenly, the security forces take the group into a cordon.
“Conversations with the police begin, attempts to find out: ‘What’s the matter?’ They do not lead to anything: the [security leader] shrugs his hands – he has an order to localize the group and he cannot do anything about it.
“Then the security forces pull their first victim out of the crowd. People are outraged… and call on the police to stop the lawlessness. At the same time, they do not commit any violence or aggressive actions in relation to representatives of the authorities.
“Instead of answering, [they] begin to pull people out one at a time in order to shove them roughly into the paddy wagon, where there was not even a light.”
The account claimed that a woman needed an ambulance and about 100 people were taken to an outdoor cage where they were ignored by police in cold and rainy conditions for around three hours.
Small groups of people were then allegedly “interrogated for 40-to-50 minutes”.
“Some are released after drawing up a protocol on an administrative offense, but very reluctantly and only after watching a video from the stadium,” they said.
“Others are transferred to the assembly hall for later, while some are sent straight to the cell.
“[Some] who do not have documents with them are filed with a violation of antiquated measures – they were in a public place without a passport – and a fine of 5,000 rubles [$69] is imposed.”
The account claimed that a bus was forced to leave without fans while another waited, with some supporters only released at 2am and others “awaiting trial”.
League bosses issued a statement saying they were “clarifying all the circumstances of this episode”, adding that the “restrictive measures taken against the guests look excessive at first glance.”
“The Russian Football Union and the Football National League will [announce] all the details of the [investigation] as new information becomes available,” they said.
Blogger Yevgeny Savin, who is the founder and president of Moscow-based FNL 2 club FC Krasava, shared Kulakov’s footage with his Instagram following of more than 775,000 and said: “No one here whitewashes fans and so on, but football without fans, with empty stands, is dull sh*t – and in FNL 2, it is doubly dull sh*t. My opinion.”
A former top-flight footballer in Germany and Turkey has allegedly been involved in a fatal shooting that reportedly killed a 24-year-old and injured four others earlier this month.
Sezer Ozturk, who played for Turkey’s two biggest clubs, Fenerbahce and Besiktas footballer, has been named by Turkish media as the protagonist of the alleged deadly incident on September 19.
Local sports broadcaster NTV Spor detailed that witnesses who have already come forward have claimed that Ozturk became involved in a fight during a case of road rage.
The outlet said that the 35-year-old opened gunfire on a group of people near Istanbul’s northern district of Sile, claiming that unverified video footage appears to back up its report.
Yıllarca menajerliğini yaptım. Dünyanın en adaletli ve duygusal insanıdır. Birini aç görse uyuyamaz cebindekini verir. Gidip mahallede insanlara saldırmaz zarar vermez. Ayıptır linç etmeyin. Hak hukuk adalet lütfen. Önce ne olduğunu anlamak lazım. #sezerozturkpic.twitter.com/iwMPuZTzP8
The dead victim has been named as Halil Ibrahim Genc, with police said to be on the hunt for Ozturk after he allegedly went on the run following the incident.
Ozturk was born in Velbert, Germany and was a graduate of the Bayer Leverkusen academy that has also produced the likes of Chelsea star Kai Havertz and Bayern Munich’s Leroy Sane.
He joined Nurnberg before a switch to Manisaspor in his parents’ homeland of Turkey.
His most successful spell was at Fenerbahce, where he won the Turkish Cup in 2012 and 2013.
The former Turkey youth international never officially announced his retirement, although he has been without a club since 2015, when Besiktas released him.
Boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya has ramped up his spat with Dana White, taunting the UFC boss over fighter pay and blasting him for “accusing me of faking a virus that killed almost 700,000 Americans”.
Former six-weight ruler De La Hoya retired after being beaten by Manny Pacquiao in 2008 but caught the boxing bug again and was set for a meeting with ex-UFC light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort this month.
The 48-year-old pulled out after contracting Covid, with Belfort instead pummeling Evander Holyfield – who is 10 years older than De La Hoya – on a September 11 card in Hollywood, Florida.
Long-time nemesis White has constantly bickered with De La Hoya through the media, and the president supremo clearly didn’t buy the Mexican-American’s excuse when he replied to a tweet that he fired out.
Hey @alexvolkanovski you just won a brutal battle for @ufc and made 1/20 of what you’re worth. @danawhite have some fucking respect for yourself and these fighters and pay these warriors what they deserve
STFU U crack head. Faking that u had Covid and robbing me of watching u get KTFO by @vitorbelfort you should win an academy award for your hospital performance.
“Hey, Alex Volkanovski,” De La Hoya began, tagging the Australian featherweight champion after his title defense win over Brian Ortega at UFC 266 on Saturday.
“You just won a brutal battle for the UFC and made 1/20 of what you’re worth.
“Dana White, have some f*cking respect for yourself and these fighters and pay these warriors what they deserve.”
“Shut the f*ck up, you crackhead,” fired back White. “Faking that you had Covid and robbing me of watching you get knocked the f*ck out by Vitor Belfort. You should win an Academy Award for your hospital performance.”
The accusations have echoes of the claim by heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte, who is now in line to face Tyson Fury for the WBC belt if the Gypsy King gets past Deontay Wilder next month, that Alexander Povetkin had faked Covid to put off their boxing rematch.
Whyte was KO’d by the Russian in August 2020, with their second meeting delayed before the Jamaican-Brit got his revenge in March, stopping him in the fourth round and sending the veteran into retirement.
Belfort’s camp also seemed to suggest they were skeptical about the claims made by De La Hoya, who was predictably unimpressed by White’s response.
“That’s all you got, Dana White?” he asked in a separate tweet late on Monday.
“You’re accusing me of FAKING a virus that killed almost 700,000 Americans to avoid a fight?
“You pathetic piece of sh*t. You’ve never even laced up the gloves.
That’s all you got @danawhite ? You’re accusing me of FAKING a virus that killed almost 700,000 Americans to avoid a fight?? You pathetic piece of shit you’ve never even laced up the gloves. And you completely ignored my original point I made about UNDERPAYING YOUR FIGHTERS
“And you completely ignored my original point I made about underpaying your fighters.”
Teasing White further, De La Hoya, who was raised in a boxing family in a tough East Los Angeles neighborhood and won Golden Gloves and Junior Olympics titles before his gold at the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games and move into the professional ranks, retweeted a photo of White as a boxercise instructor.
Perhaps it is only by settling their differences in the ring for once and for all that these two might put their feud to bed.
