Inappropriate photo 101

I settled down to watch the ding-dong battle between Arsenal and Manchester United last night, only to have my wish for an exciting game ruined in the first 12 minutes by some dodgy defending, some dodgy refereeing and some dodgy goalkeeping, all of which left Arsenal needing to score 4 times to win the tie and left the game as good as dead.

I was irritated. But at least it wasn’t my team that lost. Heavily.

It was Suleiman Alphonso Omondi’s team though and he could apparently take no more, as Sport24 reports:

Nairobi – An Arsenal fan in football-mad Kenya hung himself following his team’s 4-1 aggregate drubbing by arch-rivals Manchester United in the Champions League semi-final, police said on Wednesday.
Suleiman Alphonso Omondi, a 29-year-old Kenyan living in the capital Nairobi’s Embakasi neighbourhood, hung himself in his Arsenal shirt late Tuesday after the match, police said.

“We were watching the match at Bamba 70 pub, and when Arsenal was defeated, Suleiman just walked out in protest and he was crying,” Calvin Otieno, one of his friends, said.
“We didn’t know he was going to hang himself until Wednesday morning when we received the reports and came here to find his body at the balcony,” Otieno said outside the deceased’s home.

Tragic tale – and one which, if nothing else, demonstrates Suleiman’s passonate support for his team.

But having reported the story, which staff reporter looked through the files for an appropriate photo to use and came up with this?

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Arsenal players training

Was there really no other shot available? Cesc Fabregas in full flight? An upset or angry Arsenal fan at the Emirates, maybe? Perhaps a pic of the scoreboard or one of the Bamba70 pub? Even one of ugly Ronaldo. Ugh.
In fact, anything  that doesn’t feature an apparently slumped black man being dragged away, really.

Is it just me or was the choice of this particular photograph mildly inappropriate?

EDIT: Sky News gets the story and uses Arsenal badge as graphic. Better.

7 thoughts on “Inappropriate photo 101

  1. Mildly?! Very. Odd choice, agreed.
    Seleiman must have made some bets that he had no way of repaying…

  2. Diva > I don’t know about the betting thing.
    I’m not a betting man, but I have felt like that after some Blades matches.

  3. It’s not only sports images that are innappropriate. They seem to do it to politicians too. (see http://www.thesoutherntip.net/unflattering-media-pictures/) Although one could argue that politicians deserve it.

    BTW, whose fault was it that the Blades were relegated two years ago? Warnock and the players? Or West Ham and Tevez?

    Tony´s last blog post was: Unflattering Media Pictures (Note: 6000 miles… is not responsible for the content of external internet sites)

  4. Tony > Hi, and thanks for your comment. There’s another element in the political photos, of course. Image is everything for politicians these days and pictures of them taken in a unflattering light can make a difference to voters.

    EDIT: Oh – and the cheating scum Hammers, obviously.

  5. Have to agree the photo is a little inappropriate. Shows how they’re teaching Adebayor to tackle too. Wow you have adsense too 😉

  6. Wiggy > I have adsense too. Yes.
    Just thought that anything would have been better when reporting a black dude topping himself.

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