British channel clarifies its position on mocking Ronaldo

The British BBC network issued a statement clarifying its position regarding the mockery of Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo in the Euro 2024 matches.

During the match between Portugal and Slovenia, in the round of 16 of the Euro Championship, Ronaldo wasted a penalty kick in the first half, which led to his collapse and a fit of crying, before he returned and scored the first kick in the penalty shootout, leading his country to the quarter-finals.

During the live broadcast of the match and the analysis, and after the penalty kick was missed, the British network launched a mocking nickname against Ronaldo, which is "Mistiano Penaldo", in a sarcastic reference to the fact that most of Ronaldo's goals came from penalty kicks, but he also misses them, which caused great anger among the fans of the Madeira Rocket, after mocking the Portuguese star.

The BBC responded to the fans' attack with a statement clarifying its position, saying: "It was just a play on words, which we have done many times before in our programmes, and there was no intention to offend anyone. We have spoken positively about Ronaldo on many occasions."

He continued: "During the warm-up before the match, Jose Fonte highlighted Ronaldo's dedication, stressing that he is one of the best players in history, and between the two halves, Gary Lineker spoke to Alan Shearer for a long time about Ronaldo's movements and described them as very wonderful."