The Premier League has deleted a social media video that mocked Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario following a backlash from fans and a formal complaint by the club. The 13-second clip, posted on X to the league's 44.9 million followers, showed Vicario kicking a free-kick straight out of play for a Fulham goal kick.
The caption read: 'Just how the play was drawn up... An interesting free-kick from Vicario' followed by a smiling emoji, and then 'Whoops' with another smiling emoji. The post was published at 10:55pm on Sunday but was removed by 9am on Monday after accumulating nearly 400,000 views.
Tottenham's miserable run continued with a 2-1 defeat at Fulham, their fourth straight Premier League loss. The team has now gone 10 league games without a win and sits just four points above the relegation zone. Manager Igor Tudor was already furious that a push by Raul Jimenez on Radu Dragusin in the build-up to Fulham's opening goal was not penalised.
The Premier League's attempt at humour was widely criticised. One reply read: 'I’m not even a Spurs fan but this just seems …mean? Like an opposing team account taking the p*** I can 100% understand and appreciate but the official PL account? Yikes.' Another user wrote: 'Being made fun of by official PL account is wild,' while others questioned the league's impartiality.
Tottenham officials were unhappy with the tone and made a complaint to the Premier League, which led to the deletion. Tudor, in his post-match press conference, also criticised the officiating, saying: 'Of course it's a foul, I think - 99 out of 100 people will say it's a foul... Sometimes the criteria don't have consistency.'
