The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has apologised after a message describing Manchester United as “rubbish” popped up on the channel’s news ticker.
The news organisation also blamed one of its trainees who it said was learning how to use the ticker when they “mistakingly placed the text on display.”
The words mistakenly appeared on the news ticker at the base of the screen while the channel was airing a tennis update on Tuesday morning.
Errrr… what is going on with the BBC News ticker? pic.twitter.com/fofbiGyMfs
Advertisement— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) May 24, 2022
The gaffe has become a topic of joke on social media with several football fans creating multiple banter and stories from it.
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Manchester United ended the 2021/22 season with their worst accumulation of points ever in the Premier League era.
The Red Devils finished 35 points behind Manchester City, their arch-neighbours and EPL champions, with zero goal difference.
It took only West Ham’s loss to Brighton on the final matchday to secure them next season’s Europa League ticket.
Apologising on TV later on Tuesday, Annita Mcveigh, a BBC presenter, said the mistake happened as the trainee was “writing random things” on the news ticker for practice.
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She thereafter apologised to Manchester United fans, who may have found the text offensive.
“A little earlier, some of you may have noticed something pretty unusual on the ticker that runs along the bottom of the screen with news-making a comment about Manchester United. I hope that Manchester United fans weren’t offended by it,” she said.
“Let me just explain what was happening: behind the scenes, someone was training to learn how to use the ticker and to put text on the ticker, so they were just writing random things, not in earnest, and that comment appeared.
“So apologies if you saw that and you were offended, and you’re a fan of Manchester United.
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“But certainly that was a mistake, and it wasn’t meant to appear on the screen. So that was what happened. We just thought we’d better explain that to you.”
The on-air apology was followed by a statement from the channel, which reiterated BBC’s remorsefulness.
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“There was a technical glitch during training with our test ticker, which rolled over to live to program for a few seconds,” the statement read.
“We apologised for any offence caused on air.”
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