Manchester United forward Jesse Lingard apologized after his official Twitter account made a posting during Tuesday’s Munich air disaster memorial service at Old Trafford (video from the service at this link). Lingard attended the commemoration, along with the rest of his teammates, on this the 60th anniversary of the tragedy.
It was pretty clear that the tweet, a reply to fellow forward and BFF Marcus Rashford about a video game, was not him, but the timing could not have been worse. A sponsored content looking kind of tweet coming at such a serious and somber time? See this is why you really should do all of your own tweeting.
This is what happens when corporate flaks have control over your account. The tweet drew a ton of heavy criticism, and absolutely deservedly so, but credit Jesse Lingard for reacting well, doing a good job with damage control. He deleted the tweet, and released the following statement:
“A member of my media team inadvertently replied to a tweet this afternoon on my twitter profile during the Munich memorial service at Old Trafford. I was unaware as I was attending the service at the time, and don’t condone the post or the timing in anyway (sic).
‘The post has now been deleted and I’d like to apologise for any upset caused, this is totally unacceptable and does not reflect my personality or views on this emotional duty.”
Here is the statement in tweet form.
— Jesse Lingard (@JesseLingard) February 6, 2018
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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