Former Southampton and England striker Matt Le Tissier has admitted he was 'wrong' to post a tweet questioning the legitimacy of reports of civilian deaths in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. The tweet sparked widespread backlash and led to him stepping aside from his role as an ambassador at Southampton.
Le Tissier, 53, told Saintsplus: 'The point that I was making... I could have chosen a better example. That's why I deleted the tweet. The point I was trying to get across, I didn't use the right example to get that across and it came across the wrong way which is my mistake.' He added that he apologised for the tweet and recognised it was 'the wrong thing' to do.
Le Tissier also addressed his departure from Sky Sports in August 2020, shortly after he had been vocal about the 'narrative' surrounding the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. He claimed his opinions on the pandemic cost him his job, saying: 'I felt early on there was a massive overreaction to it by the governments. And that's where it all started for me with questioning the narrative and probably ended up with me losing my job at Sky.'
The former Premier League star had been an ambassador for Southampton since 2019 before his recent departure. He said stepping aside was 'the best thing for me to do to take the hassle off of Southampton Football Club.'
