Alan Sugar, the star of the BBC’s British version of The Apprentice, has been widely criticized for a tweet that compared Senegal’s World Cup soccer team to sellers “from the beach in Marbella.”
He posted a picture of the team from their opening match against Poland on Tuesday together with pictures of sunglasses and handbags.
This is what Alan Sugar just tweeted and deleted pic.twitter.com/wgHP98VmZE
— Nooruddean (@BeardedGenius) June 20, 2018
The tweet prompted hundreds of responses on Twitter, with the U.K. billionaire businessman accused of racism.
“This lazy, stereotypical and bigoted kind of attitude belongs to a bygone era,” educational charity Show Racism the Red Card told BBC Sport.
“The World Cup is a celebration of different cultures and brings people together from across the globe. Lord Sugar’s unhelpful and ignorant comments go very much against the spirit of this unique occasion and are probably best kept to himself.”
Sugar, who has since taken down the post, later tweeted an apology, saying that his post was “in no way intended to cause offence and clearly my attempt at humour has backfired.”
Senegal won the match against Poland 2-0.
