UEFA president slammed after warning England Lionesses manager Sarina Wiegman her trophy is ‘heavy'
People have slammed UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin after he told England coach Sarina Wiegman that her trophy was 'heavy'.
Wiegman was being awarded with the UEFA Women's Coach of the Year for the second time in a row, following the brilliant work she's done with the Three Lionesses.
However, when UEFA president Ceferin handed the coaching award over he told Wiegman: "Be careful, it's heavy."
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He's attracted criticism for this with people taking to social media to slam Ceferin, with one wondering whether the UEFA president wanted to 'condescend' following the aftermath of the Women's World Cup Final and the actions of Luis Rubiales.
Someone else asked why men in football continued to be 'so cringey with the women involved in the sport'.
Another said they thought it 'came across as a poor look' for the UEFA president to be making the comment.
Frankly, Wiegman looked as though she had little problem holding the award, which is unsurprising since it's not the first time she's been named Women's Coach of the Year.
She also took the opportunity to dedicate the award to the Spanish team that beat her England side in the final.
Wiegman said: "We all know the issues around the Spanish team and it really hurts me as a coach, as a mother of two daughters, as a wife and as a human being.
"The game has grown so much but there's also still a long way to go in women's football and in society."
"I would like to dedicate this award to the Spanish team, the team that played at the World Cup such great football that everyone enjoyed."
"I was going to ask you to give this applause afterwards but this team deserves to be celebrated and deserves to be listened to, and I'm going to give them again a big applause and I hope you will join me."
What a class act.
This is not the first time a figure in football has attracted criticism for telling a woman the trophy he's about to pass her is heavy.
Last year, Alessia Russo was being handed an award for scoring Manchester United's goal of the season when Manchester United Foundation CEO, John Shiels, said he wouldn't hand the award over 'because it's so heavy'.
He then handed the award over while the ceremony's host, Geoff Shreeves, joked that Shiels was the one who needed to 'do a bit more weight training'.
The moment was widely criticised with plenty weighing in to say his comment had made things horribly awkward.
Shiels later apologised to Russo and her teammates, saying he was 'mortified' at the offence he'd caused and that he was alerting the player to the weight of the award 'and would have done the same if presenting to a male player'.
Joe Harker