ALAN Hansen unreservedly apologised today after his use of the word "coloured" to describe black players on TV sent Twitter into meltdown.
Match of the Day pundit Hansen, 56, made the cringeworthy gaffe while discussing the current John Terry and Luis Suarez racism rows.

In a statement, he said: "I unreservedly apologise for any offence caused. This was never my intention and I deeply regret the use of the word."

Fellow pundit Lee Dixon looked pale as the ex-Liverpool defender blurted out: "I think there's a lot of coloured players in all the major teams and there are lots of coloured players who are probably the best in the Premier League.

"If you look at 25 or 30 years ago it was probably in a bad way - not as bad as some of the other nations on the Continent - but certainly there is always, always room for improvement."

On social networking sites including Twitter and Facebook, Hansen — who is paid £40,000 per show — faced a backlash from footballers, celebrities and fans.

Former Spurs player Rohan Ricketts tweeted: "Is this Alan Hansen guy taking the f****** p***?? I'm not coloured??? He is part of the problem when using that word. We are BLACK Alan! Wtf [sic].


"Alan Hansen is more coloured than a black person. But still we would not call him or another white man coloured."
Ex-Anfield star Stan Collymore added: "What colour would that be? Blue? Green? Orange?"

Rapper Example wrote on Twitter: "I didn't see MOTD but did Alan Hansen really say 'coloured players'?? Wow. Hand him his P45."

Fans branded Hansen "a complete fool".

One, tweeting as gunnerblog, added: "Anyone else's jaw hit the floor as Alan Hansen said racism wasn't a problem in English football because of success of 'coloured' players?"

But he was defended by some supporters with one saying "he's not racist, he's just old skool".


Hansen is not the first pundit to run into trouble after making an ill-advised comment.

Earlier this year, Tony Cascarino sparked outrage after he described a player as having a "holocaust" of a game on Sky Sports News during a match between Manchester United and Arsenal which saw the North London team suffer a crushing 8-2 defeat.

The BBC said it would comment later today.

Liverpool players wore No7 shirts with Suarez's picture on them before last night's 0-0 draw with Wigan to back the Uruguayan, who is set to appeal his eight-match ban for racially abusing Man Utd's Patrice Evra.

The Franchise wrote:

halamadrid2 wrote:i think he is a little old schooled when coming to that word

black people dont want to be called coloured people as EVERYBODY are coloured unless youre pale

even mixed raced people dont want to be called half caste as they say its insulting

it differs from people to people

but the thing is he is old schooled of course he will use that word

I dont know one person who would be offended by the word coloured.

Half caste is different, because it was a bad term, an offensive term. Some people find that offensive, but as I said, I dont know anyone who finds "coloured" offensive.

RealGunner wrote:Calling someone coloured is technically illegal. But saying that, how can anyone be offended ? This is becoming a joke.