Gary Neville responds to Leeds apology over fan footage
‘No-one is falling for your sanitised, vanilla PR guff any more!’: Gary Neville tells football superstars apologising for ignoring their fans they can’t hide behind statements – after Leeds and Arsenal players snubbed supporters
- Leeds players posted an apology after they were seen ignoring supporters
- It comes after Arsenal were also criticised last month for ignoring a mascot
- Gary Neville has told footballers they can’t hide behind statements in a tweet
Gary Neville has ripped into footballers for hiding behind statements, after Leeds players released an apology message after they were seen snubbing supporters.
Leeds players apologised for ignoring young fans waiting to greet the team at their hotel, after footage emerged of them blanking supporters on Sunday.
It was not the first time a team has been criticised for something like that this season after Arsenal players were branded ‘entitled, overpaid and rude’ by football supporters after the club shared footage of them ignoring an eight-year-old mascot as they briskly signed her shirt before walking away.
Sky Sports pundit Neville has hit out at footballers for hiding behind statements and told them to do their messages via video so people can see their faces.
He tweeted: ‘This isn’t a message to Leeds players it’s to all players/teams apologising.
Gary Neville has told footballers they can’t hide behind statements after Leeds players posted an apology following a video went viral of them ignoring their supporters
Despite a young fan waving, the video shows no Leeds players acknowledging the fans
Arsenal players were also criticised after they signed a young mascot’s shirt but didn’t acknowledge her in a video posted by Arsenal to their social media channels last month
In response to Leeds’ tweet linking to their apology statement, he said that no one is falling for ‘sanitised/PR guff anymore’ and that players should speak on video
‘No-one is falling for sanitised/vanilla PR guff anymore. Speak from the heart and better on video so fans can see your faces.’
A clip posted on Twitter showed members of the Leeds first team walking towards the hotel’s entrance in silence, while a group of fans tried to get their attention.
Most of the Leeds team were wearing headphones and avoided eye contact as they headed for the door.
One young boy waved at the players to try and get their attention but no one looked in his direction, and his view was later blocked by a member of the Leeds security team.
On the club’s website, a statement entitled ‘A Message From the Players’, read: ‘As the first team squad at Leeds United, we wanted to reach out to the fan base regarding yesterday’s game and subsequent posts on social media.
‘Firstly, the performance was not good enough. There is no other way to look at it and the only way to respond is on the pitch. Leeds fans travel up and down the country in huge numbers and deserve more than this.
‘Words can’t express how sorry we are that the youngster in the video wearing the Leeds kit is not shown more love from the squad.’
‘On a matchday we do an activation walk, before and after this we stop for photos and autographs to ensure we interact with fans, but also that we are on time when leaving for games.
‘However, there is no excuse for not acknowledging fans and if the parents of the fan wearing the Leeds kit in the video could make themselves known to us, we would be grateful.
‘We do not believe that this fight is over and we will keep going until the last ball is kicked this season. Thank you again for your support.’
Leeds were hammered 4-1 in the game against Bournemouth at Vitality Stadium and face a battle to avoid Premier League relegation.
A video from Arsenal last month meanwhile prompted criticism from celebrities including Nick Knowles, who told the Gunners to ‘give your players another go at being decent human beings’.
This was because Mikel Arteta’s side were seen filing past eight-year-old Olivia Murray as they signed her replica top without acknowledging the youngster.
But Olivia’s father, who is originally from Sydney, Australia, defended the players – insisting the footage was just a ‘small window’ on her day. He also shared a photo of her holding Odegaard’s hand.
‘My daughter had a lovely time as Mascot for @Arsenal,’ Mr Murray tweeted. ‘There was only a small window to meet the players and she enjoyed it very much. Odegaard is her favourite player so to hold his hand onto the pitch was very special.’
Piers Morgan was equally unimpressed as Knowles though, adding: ‘Come on guys, at least one of you say hello to her?!!’
Leeds’ Premier League status is under major risk following their 4-1 defeat at Bournemouth
Arsenal were criticised by a number of celebrities after the video of them ignoring a young mascot, though the clip was just a small part of her experience that day when she saw players
OIivia Murray’s dad posted a picture of her holding hands with Martin Odegaard as they walked onto the pitch ahead of Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with West Ham
The Arsenal fan also branded Leeds players as ‘selfish, arrogant, p****s’ after their video went viral.
TalkSPORT host Laura Woods also weighed in on the debate, saying the incident is ‘symptomatic’ of modern football.
Woods, who is an Arsenal fan, admitted she felt uncomfortable watching the footage and reached out to the club afterwards. Speaking on talkSPORT, she explained their response.
‘To add a little bit of context, I actually messaged the club because I think they thought “they all stopped and signed the shirt, this is great”, Woods said.
‘Maybe that in itself is the problem that there’s now a disconnect between what you’re meant to do for those kinds of mascots.
‘The club did say it’s part of a matchday experience so that’s not the only interaction she had with the players.
‘She was a mascot, she went out on the pitch with them, she would have been on the pitch with them during warm-ups.’
‘I think there’s a lot of things we don’t see, but that’s not excusing that video because I watched it a couple of times over and in my head thought “oh wait, was it cut off afterwards, maybe they did [acknowledge her]?”
‘And I went back and watched it, and they didn’t.’
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