Ndongo Ndiaye calling for head of Lord Sugar

epa06821517 Senegal's players celebrate their lead goal during the FIFA World Cup 2018 group H preliminary round soccer match between Poland and Senegal in Moscow, Russia, 19 June 2018.

by Staff Reporter

Friday Jun 22, 2018. 11:29

Ndongo Ndiaye, sports advisor to Senegal president Macky Sal, has called for the head of Lord Sugar after a racist tweet by the host of the BBC show The Apprentice.

Lord Sugar posted an edited picture showing Senegalese players with rows of sunglasses and handbags and told his 5.47million Twitter followers: ‘I recognise some of these guys from the beach in Marbella. Multi tasking resourceful chaps.’

Image/link to tweet: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/06/22/01/4D797DB700000578-0-image-a-13_1529628741376.jpg

While Lord Sugar says it was only meant as a joke, Ndiaye confirms that all involved and the Senegal people are extremely offended by the tweet.

“Everyone here is talking about this tweet, it has made headlines in Senegal too,” said Ndiaye to The Times.

“I think it is very ignorant from someone in his position.

“Of course, there must be freedom of speech but this was wrong and it is hurtful to the players and people from Senegal.

“If I was his boss, if I was responsible for him, then I would fire him.”

Lord Sugar initially defended his message, insisting it was intended as a joke but later apologised.

There has since been large scale calls for BBC to axe Lord Sugar from The Apprentice while numerous public personalities have highlighted just how racist the tweet was.

Former England player Stan Collymore tweeted BBC Sport to say: ‘The word you’re looking for is racist... It’s racism. Say it. Imagine a black peer saying something anti-Semitic about the Israeli football team at a World Cup. He’d have already been sacked, possibly arrested, and would be the front page of every paper tomorrow.’

Nigerian-born actress Kelechi Okafor tweeted: ‘Lord Sugar is constructing this joke on the premise that all black people look alike, are poor and cannot achieve social mobility.’ Campaign group Show Racism the Red Card said: ‘This lazy, stereotypical and bigoted kind of attitude belongs to a bygone era.’

On the pitch Senegal are in good spirits at the 2018 World Cup where they beat Poland 2-1 in their opening Group H match. They are next in action on Sunday against Japan who beat Colombia 2-1 in their opening game.