Newcastle United legend issues statement after BBC forced to apologise for offensive Celtic claim
Newcastle United legend Shay Given has issued a statement after making a highly offensive remark while live on the BBC.
Former Premier League goalkeeper Shay Given admitted he was ‘genuinely mortified’ after coming under fire for describing Wilfried Nancy’s spell at Celtic as ‘an absolute Holocaust’.
The comments were aired live on the BBC’s Final Score show on Saturday and faced significant condemnation and backlash from viewers.
It saw the BBC quickly issue an apology towards the end of the show for ‘any offence caused’ by Given’s comments, which seemingly compared Nancy’s 33-day spell at Celtic, in which he lost six out of eight games, to the genocide of around six million European Jews during World War II.
The word ‘holocaust’ has a literal definition of ‘destruction or slaughter on a mass scale’, but is most commonly used as a proper noun to describe the 1941-1945 Nazi genocide.
While Given’s offensive wording was initially ignored, Final Score presenter Jason Mohammad said towards the end of the programme: “A little earlier you may have heard some inappropriate language, so we would like to apologise for any offence caused.”
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Shay Given’s offensive Celtic comments
Given, who is Newcastle United’s all-time leading Premier League appearance holder, started his career at Celtic’s academy in the early 90s.
And when asked to deliver a verdict on Nancy’s stint at Celtic, he responded: “Nancy was terrible from start to finish, I don't think they should have ended Martin [O'Neill's] short tenure at the start.
“It was the week leading up to the Hearts game, top of the league clash, then Roma in the Europa League and St Mirren in the League Cup final, I thought Martin should have been given that week at least.
“Nancy took over that week and had an absolute Holocaust in that week and it was just a nightmare from then on, the defeats and Rangers last weekend was the final straw, final nail in the coffin.”
Shay Given issues statement
Afterwards, Given took to social media to issue a short statement in which he claimed ignorance in his choice of words.
As a gesture of apology and goodwill, the former goalkeeper pledged to donate his appearance fee from Final Score to the Holocaust Educational Trust.
On X, Given wrote: “On live television this afternoon, I used a word that I didn't fully understand the meaning of and certainly won't ever use again.
“We all have areas of ignorance in our knowledge and I hope to use this as an opportunity to become better educated going forward.
“I am genuinely mortified and apologise unreservedly to anyone offended and will be donating my fee from today's show to Holocaust Educational Trust.”