Leeds United have been criticised after the club's official Twitter account mocked football pundit and former England international Karen Carney after she claimed they will struggle at the end of the season.
After Leeds won 5-0 at West Brom on Tuesday, Carney said Leeds had benefited from the coronavirus break in March as the club earned promotion back to the Premier League for the first time in 16 years.
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Carney said Leeds could "blow up at the end of the season" due to the hard-running approach instilled by head coach Marcelo Bielsa.
The club's Twitter account posted a video of the Carney's comments with the caption: "Promoted because of COVID" and "Won the league by 10 points."
Carney received abuse in a number of the comments and former Leeds captain Rio Ferdinand called for the tweet to be deleted.
The club released a statement on Wednesday which read: "Leeds United completely condemns any abuse received by Karen Carney on social media following last night's Premier League game.
"Everyone at our club respects Karen greatly for all she has achieved in the game, as well as her work in the media and the charity work she undertakes."
The Women in Football network also responded to the tweet and posted: "Whether you agree with the comment or not, singling out and ridiculing an individual on an official club account is not what we're here for.
"Karen Carney is a well-informed pundit. This tweet is inciteful and inappropriate."
However, club chairman Andrea Radrizzani doubled down on the criticism and said Carney's comments were "disrespectful."
I take the responsibility of the Club tweet. I consider that comment completely unnecessary and disrespectful to our Club and particularly to the fantastic hard work of our players and coaches whom were understanding on the pitch for the last two championship seasons by all stats
— Andrea Radrizzani (@andrearadri) December 29, 2020
"I take the responsibility of the club tweet," he posted on Twitter. "I consider that comment completely unnecessary and disrespectful to our club and particularly to the fantastic hard work of our players and coaches whom were understanding on the pitch for the last two championship seasons by all stats."
Radrizzani later later told SKY Sports' Jim White: "I'm very sorry Karen was abused on social media. I wanted to defend my club and our players from a comment, which I felt was harsh from Karen on air.
"Our tweet wasn't offensive -- simply stating that we won the league by 10 points. We honestly didn't expect such a reaction and we are sorry she experienced that. I respect her as a person and a pundit and I hope she understands that we just want to defend our club, we are a family.
"I hope the abuse stops and we can move forward and I hope Karen will be our guest at Elland Road soon -- I'd like to meet personally with her."
Outspoken United States star Megan Rapinoe tweeted her support of Carney, calling her a "national treasure."
"Shame. Shame. Shame. Thicken up that skin y'all. Also, don't come for @karenjcarney she's a National treasure," Rapinoe posted.
Carney, who made 144 international appearances, is also a columnist at The Times and the newspaper reported that Leeds had contacted her on Wednesday to invited her to conduct a TV report at the club's training ground ahead of their FA Cup tie against Crawley Town on Sunday.
Information from Reuters was included in this report.