“I was unaware of the situation regarding the criminal proceeding against Mr Mendy.”
A sports journalist from a community radio station in west Clare has apologised to Manchester City after his questions confused the right-back Kyle Walker.
The question was put to the England international during a press conference and a clip of the interview went viral with over one million views on various social media channels.
The journalist, Jim Conlon asked Walker what it was like competing with “Bernard Mendy” for the right back position and that he heard Mendy was “a bit of a character as well”.
This was obviously controversial giving that Benjamin Mendy has been suspended by the club after being charged with four rapes and one sexual assault after accusations by three women, one of whom is under 18.
😂 Kyle Walker being left utterly bemused in his press conference is the best thing you'll watch today.
Just incredible.pic.twitter.com/1X7a6iHPyl
— The Sportsman (@TheSportsman) November 3, 2021
In a statement released by Conlon, he apologised for the incident and said that the error “wasn’t intentional.”
“I was unaware of the situation regarding the criminal proceeding against Mr Mendy when asking the question,” he said.
“I had no intent to put Kyle Walker in a difficult position or to try and wrongly deceive him to gain a story or publicity for myself or my radio station.”
“I tried to make a statement on my personal twitter account which was lambasted by trolls so I took it down and I’m not commentating on the matter anymore,” Conlon said.
“I said Bernard instead of Benjamin but what people were trying to [imply] was it a question of me being aware of the case against Mr Mendy and [trying] to put Kyle Walker in a difficult spot. [That] was not the intention.
“If I had said by mistake Oleg Zinchenko this would not have blown up. It’s a tough lesson but it wasn’t intentional.”
