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Sunderland apologized to their fans in a message on the club’s website on Thursday evening.
The English second division team will face arch-rivals Newcastle United in the third round of the FA Cup on Saturday. To keep the away fans happy, the club had a bar in its own Stadium of Light, decorated in Newcastle’s black and white colours. “A serious misjudgment,” the club admitted.
On Saturday it will be the first Tyne Wear derby in almost eight years. Several Newcastle fans had rented a bar in the opponent’s stadium box for the occasion and Sunderland wanted to accommodate them by changing the layout of the bar. Black and white slogans hung on the walls and Sunderland’s famous rallying cry of “Haway” was replaced by “Howay”, as it is shouted in neighboring Newcastle.
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Pictures of the bar emerged on social media on Thursday, sparking a wave of angry reactions from Sunderland fans. There were immediate calls for the departure of majority shareholder Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, the son of former Standard and Marseille owner Robert Louis-Dreyfus.
Sunderland apologized on Thursday evening and said they would immediately reverse the changes to the bar. Dreyfus also apologized personally on social media, saying he was “disgusted” by the inappropriate images.
Even before the incident, there were tensions among Sunderland fans after it became known that some season ticket holders had to give up their usual seats to the 6,000 Newcastle fans who had traveled with them.
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