If Erik Ten Hag’s failure to bring Cristiano Ronaldo off the bench warranted a sixty-minute interview with Piers Morgan, the latest disrespect might mean the Portuguese superstar and British newsman have to start their own TV station.
Pay-TV behemoth SuperSport were forced to apologise on Wednesday after a video emerged of one of their guest presenters calling Ronaldo a “p**s”.
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Tshepang Mollison, a social media influencer popular known as Twiggy Moli, was captured on video responding to a question on Supersport’s Super Picks show.
“Who do you want to win this one, Ronaldo or Messi?” asked her co-host before she answered “Messi, because Ronaldo is a p**s,” using the common and extremely insulting Afrikaans swear word.
SuperSport on Wednesday responded with an official statement:
“SuperSport is aware of a SuperPicks video circulating on social media. This was a rehearsal that was not meant for broadcast. Despite this, we unreservedly apologise for the language used.”
Unsurprisingly, Twiggy’s comment was heavily criticised on social media, with many arguing that she was not qualified enough to present a sports show.
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Mollison shot to fame years after founding the lifestyle and fashion blog Sleepless in Soweto with her friend Sedi Ramone.
She studied towards a qualification in film and media and worked briefly as a freelance photographer before building her personal brand as a lifestyle content creator.
Guest hosting for Supersport is not her first foray into presenting.
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In a past interview with Tagged! magazine, she revealed; “I’ve never been shy about wanting to be a TV presenter, but I just wasn’t aggressive enough in chasing that dream. I entered the MTV VJ search once and I didn’t make it that far. I was really disappointed which put me off going to any other auditions after that.”
She explained to the publication that she was approached by SuperSport to create a bit of content around their DStv Compact Cup and thought she would be doing what she always does, which is create content around a certain event in her own style.
“Little did I know that I would be interviewing people on the streets and doing live inserts at the final game. Because of my experience and background with lifestyle content, I was selected to go to Spain for the La Liga experience.
My role on that trip was to capture the lifestyle aspect around that derby weekend and showcase the entire experience from a lifestyle lens and not that of a sports journalist.”
In the interview, she even addressed how much she knows about the sport, adding that it was not an impediment to her in the role she was hired for.
“I know very little about soccer but I represent many people who know little but are interested in getting into it or have found themselves watching the game with a boyfriend or a brother.
I’m learning a lot about the game as I go and I’m very happy that I can engage with the timeline banter during games and interact with local and international players alike.”
As yet, Mollison has not responded herself, and it remains to be seen if SuperSport continue to use her on their show. She may, however, have done well to listen to her own advice from a week or so earlier.
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Background reporting by Kaunda Selisho
