A Senegal fan has criticised as offensive Lord Sugar’s tweet comparing his national team to sunglasses sellers on Marbella beach.
Pape Ndiaye, 47, said he was “absolutely” offended by the tweet, which Lord Sugar defended as a joke, before apologising and removing.
Lord Sugar wrote: “I recognise some of these guys from the beach in Marbella. Multi tasking resourceful chaps.”
Shown a picture of the tweet, Mr Ndiaye said: “That’s bullshit, that’s bullshit.
“That’s one of the things that’s going to keep me from going forward. It doesn’t even make sense.
“But the bottom line is we don’t need this kind of thing. I’m not into politics. Politics is not going to change the world – sport, music, entertainment are the kind of thing that can change the world.”
Mr Ndiaye, from Dakar, in the West African nation, was speaking in Moscow the day after his team’s 2-1 victory over Poland.
Senegal beats Poland (2-1) in their opening game of the @FIFAWorldCup 2018, can they go all the way? #WorldCup #CelebrateAfrica pic.twitter.com/JkKxuZFSnK
— CAF (@CAF_Online) June 20, 2018
He said he had been sat among Polish fans and had been concerned they might make it uncomfortable for him but instead they shook hands at the end of the match.
He said: “When I was sitting in the middle of those Poland fans, if they were just racist they could have thrown beer or whatever, but they were nice, they took pictures with me, they gave me a jersey.
“Then I have a positive experience and when I go home I say ‘look these people are nice’.
“That’s how powerful we are – we are each and everybody like ambassadors. We have to be positive.”
Mr Ndiaye said he was concerned about travelling to Russia over fears of racism but he had a “very nice experience” so far.
