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Leeds United have been criticised after the club’s official Twitter account mocked football pundit and former England international Karen Carney after she claimed they will struggle at the end of the season.
Before Leeds won 5-0 at West Brom on Tuesday, Carney said Leeds had benefited from the coronavirus break in March as the club earned promotion back to the Premier League for the first time in 16 years.
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Carney said Leeds could “blow up at the end of the season” due to the hard-running approach instilled by head coach Marcelo Bielsa.
The club’s Twitter account posted a video of the Carney’s comments with the caption: “Promoted because of COVID” and “Won the league by 10 points.”
Carney received abuse in a number of the comments and former Leeds captain Rio Ferdinand called for the tweet to be deleted.
The Women in Football network also responded to the tweet and posted: “Whether you agree with the comment or not, singling out and ridiculing an individual on an official club account is not what we’re here for.
“Karen Carney is a well-informed pundit. This tweet is inciteful and inappropriate.”
However, club chairman Andrea Radrizzani doubled down on the criticism and said Carney’s comments were “disrespectful.”
I take the responsibility of the Club tweet. I consider that comment completely unnecessary and disrespectful to our Club and particularly to the fantastic hard work of our players and coaches whom were understanding on the pitch for the last two championship seasons by all stats
— Andrea Radrizzani (@andrearadri) December 29, 2020
“I take the responsibility of the club tweet,” he posted on Twitter. “I consider that comment completely unnecessary and disrespectful to our club and particularly to the fantastic hard work of our players and coaches whom were understanding on the pitch for the last two championship seasons by all stats.”
Carney, who made 144 international appearances, is also a columnist at The Times and the newspaper reported that Leeds had contacted her on Wednesday to invited her to conduct a TV report at the club’s training ground ahead of their FA Cup tie against Crawley Town on Sunday.