UNITED MAG’S SICK MUAMBA GAGS
Fanzine faces axe
A MANCHESTER United fanzine is facing the axe after causing outrage by poking fun at Bolton player Fabrice Muamba’s near-fatal on-pitch collapse.
Red Issue published a Private Eye-style front page with bubble captions from the crowd as Muamba is tended by paramedics on the pitch.
The front cover takes aim at the public reaction to the star’s collapse under the headline ‘Grief junkies run riot’. The bubbles say, ‘Is he dead?’, ‘I’ve Tweeted my condolences just in case’ and ‘Good mourning!’
Muamba, 23, is slowly recovering in the London Chest Hospital after he collapsed at the Tottenham v Bolton Wanderers FA Cup quarter final match on March 17.
His heart stopped for 78 minutes in the battle to save his life.
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His recovery has “amazed” medics but he remains in intensive care where his condition is described as “stable”.
The magazine provoked a massive reaction from angry fans on Twitter and the words ‘red issue’ were trending on the social media site.
Fan Mike Rawlins tweeted: “Red issue gets it horribly wrong.”
Toby Sims wrote: “I’m disgusted by the Red Issue cover. I’m a United fan but that’s awful.”
Richard Buxton posted: “Red Issue sink to new depths with sick cover… even Utd fans outraged.”
But a spokesman for the magazine defended the cover, saying: “It’s aimed at the people who latched onto the situation and their fake sentiments.”
The latest cover comes after copies of Red Issue were confiscated by cops before United’s FA Cup clash with Liverpool in February. It had a spoof Ku Klux Klan mask poking fun at Liverpool striker Luis Suarez, banned for eight matches after racially abusing United defender Patrice Evra.