Former Premier League striker Matt Le Tissier has conceded he was "wrong" to post a tweet questioning the legitimacy of reports of civilian deaths in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.
The tweet was quick to receive widespread backlash before the former England international "stepped aside" from his role as an ambassador at Southampton. Le Tissier had been in the role with his former side since 2019 before his departure this week. He has since broken his silence to give his reasoning behind the tweet.
"The point that I was making (was) I could have chosen a better example," Le Tissier told Saintsplus. "That’s why I deleted the tweet. The point I was trying to get across, I didn’t use the right example to get that across and it came across the wrong way which is my mistake. I should have thought that through better.
"That’s why I chose to delete the tweet and apologise for it. It’s very emotive and it was the wrong thing for me to do. I see that now but it doesn’t change the point I was trying to make, I just used the wrong example.
"I’ve always wanted what’s best for Southampton Football Club," he said. "Since the age of 16 that’s all I’ve wanted and looking at it rationally it was the best thing for me to do to take the hassle off of Southampton Football Club."
Le Tissier saw his role with Sky Sports come to an end in August of 2020, shortly after he had been vocal over the "narrative" surrounding the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown. He even went as far as to suggest that photos of people infected with the virus in China looked "inauthentic".
HAVE YOUR SAY! Was Le Tissier's tweet a poor choice from the former Saints forward? Comment below
The 53-year-old has since claimed that his opinions on the pandemic cost him his job with Sky. He said:"I went into working in the media from 2002 onwards until late August 2020, which was an interesting scenario where I lost my job.
"Obviously the pandemic started in 2020 in March - and very early on in that I had my doubts as to what was really going on. I felt early on there was a massive overreaction to it by the governments. And that's where it all started for me with questioning the narrative and probably ended up with me losing my job at Sky."
Le Tissier has claimed that in the wake of some of his controversial views that "he ain't a stupid human being!"
