Happy weekend Manchester United fans! The Red Devils, thanks to a late PK conversion from Bruno Fernandes, were able to rescue a draw and hence a point from their trip to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last night.
The match saw the long awaited return of Marcus Rashford, who had been out for several months with a double stress fracture in his back. United’s leading scorer wasn’t involved in any goals, but he did manager two shots and two fouls cleared.
Katie Hopkins suspended from Twitter.
Marcus Rashford wins again. pic.twitter.com/QUGAuRji7z
— Retro United (@Retro_Utd) June 19, 2020
There is more interesting news surrounding Rashford today though off the pitch. Rashford recently made big international news by literally helping to shape policy in the United Kingdom.
Largely due to Rashford’s influence, the government made a u-turn on their plans to end funding free meals for school children during the current coronavirus pandemic.
It prompted far-right wing pundit Katie Hopkins to tweet at the forward her thoughts that women should “think about how they are going to feed a child before they decide to have it.”
Hopkins, who had over one million Twitter followers, then saw her account on the social media platform permanently suspended. Twitter did not say what specifically was the last straw for them, but released a statement.
“Keeping Twitter safe is a top priority for us – abuse and hateful conduct have no place on our service and we will continue to take action when our rules are broken,” the company said.
“In this case the account has been permanently suspended for violations of our hateful conduct policy.”
The Twitter terms of service ban the posting of content intended to “promote violence or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease,”
It’s almost certain that her contentious remark against Rashford wasn’t the reason for her removal, but more likely the last tipping point, given her long record of posting material that falls into the categories listed above.
Hopkins, a former personality on The Apprentice, has been singled out for praise by Donald Trump, an individual who consistently violates the TOS himself, but somehow still gets away with.
Elsewhere Jose Mourinho hit out at VAR yesterday, showing that he’s truly back to midseason form. The former United manager was not happy about his former club getting calls that he believes they should not have.
“Well, we knew that we could have a penalty against and we were very careful with it,” the Portugese said.
“We know that Manchester United has an incredible record with penalties given this season and we knew that everything in the box was very dangerous for us. We had to be very cautious, we were prepared to block every shot with hands behind the body. We knew that it could happen.”
Mourinho wasn’t done.
“I think in the first penalty the referee Jonathan made this decision, which I admit is difficult for referees,” he then continued.
“Then the VAR is a different story. I think referees can make mistakes but I don’t think VAR should make mistakes. Then the second penalty is incredible for me. It’s a foul on Serge Aurier that should kill the situation.
“Then it’s a situation in the box and I feel when VAR goes for simulation immediately the player should be exposed and get a yellow card. But that didn’t happen. I feel really upset with these two decisions but that’s how it is.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
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