London - The Football Association said a front page headline in
Britain's biggest selling newspaper that made a joke out of new England
manager Roy Hodgson's manner of speech was "unacceptable".
Wednesday's Sun reacted to Hodgson's appointment with a headline of 'BWING ON THE EUWOS!' (We'll see you in Ukwaine against Fwance)'.
According
to the FA, this led to both the governing body and the UK's Press
Complaints Commission receiving complaints about the "poor taste and
disrespectful" wording.
An FA statement issued Wednesday said:
"The FA and the Press Complaints Commission have today received a large
number of objections relating to the front page headline in The Sun
newspaper, regarding Roy Hodgson's manner of speech.
"On this
occasion, we will not be making an official complaint to the PCC but we
have raised it with the newspaper and made it clear that their front
page is unacceptable to us."
FA chairman David Bernstein added:
"We are delighted at the media response to Roy's appointment but are
disappointed with the headline in The Sun, which we consider is in poor
taste and disrespectful."
In its story the Sun said Hodgson was "affectionately known as Woy due to his speech impediment".
Many pundits and players chipped in attacking the Sun's poor taste including a former editor of the paper David Yelland.
"So little compassion for Roy Hodgson today, bullying language, pointlessly cruel, pointlessly hurtful," he said.
Hodgson
was unveiled as England manager by the FA on Tuesday after emerging as
the shock choice to succeed Fabio Capello following the Italian's
resignation in February.
The 64-year-old former West Brom manager won out over 'fans favourite' Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham boss, for the England job.
Hodgson's
first major tournament in charge of England will be the upcoming
European Championships in Poland and Ukraine where the team play France
in Donetsk on June 11.
The tabloid Sun, which has a daily sale of just over 2.5 million copies, is renowned for its colourful headlines.
- AFP