UEFA president slammed after telling England manager Sarina Wiegman her trophy is 'heavy'
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has been slammed after telling Sarina Wiegman that her Women's Coach of the Year award was 'heavy'.
The England Women's boss received the accolade yesterday (31 August) for the second year in a row as a testament to the excellent work she's done with the Three Lionesses.
However, people called out Ceferin for spoiling the moment a bit as when he was passing her the trophy he told Wiegman: "Be careful, it's heavy."
Ceferin was slammed for trying to 'condescend' Wiegman, with many pointing out that football already has quite the apparent problem with the way men treat women.
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One person asked why men kept behaving 'so cringey with the women involved in the sport' while another said it 'came across as a poor look' for Ceferin to be commenting.
Unsurprisingly for someone who's already won it once before Wiegman appeared to have no problem holding her trophy, only setting it down to free up her hands in a round of applause for the Spanish women's team.
The Three Lionesses coach used her acceptance speech to dedicate the trophy to the winners of the Women's World Cup, who beat her England side 1-0 in the final before Luis Rubiales kissed Jenni Hermoso against her will and is now refusing to resign, despite significant backlash.
Wiegman proved herself to be a class act as she said: "We all know the issues around the Spanish team and it really hurts me as a coach, as a mother of two daughters, as a wife and as a human being.
"The game has grown so much but there's also still a long way to go in women's football and in society."
"I would like to dedicate this award to the Spanish team, the team that played at the World Cup such great football that everyone enjoyed."
"I was going to ask you to give this applause afterwards but this team deserves to be celebrated and deserves to be listened to, and I'm going to give them again a big applause and I hope you will join me."
This is not the first time a figure in football has been criticised for telling a woman the trophy they were about to hand her was 'heavy'.
Alessia Russo last year received an award for scoring Manchester United's goal of the season but had to wait for the club's foundation CEO John Shiels who at first didn't hand her the accolade 'because it's so heavy'.
He later apologised to Russo and her teammates, saying he was 'mortified' for causing offence after he was called out by many for his comment.
Joe Harker