Williams on ‘mugs’ comment: ‘Apologies if it caused offence to anyone’

FORMER Swansea City skipper Ashley Williams has apologised after being caught on camera referring to Cardiff City fans as “mugs”.

The Wales captain set the record straight last night ahead of tonight’s game in Albania.

On Friday, when Wales took on Denmark, Williams was filmed arriving at the Cardiff City Stadium apparently sharing a joke with another former Jack, Joe Allen, about Bluebirds fans.

The full video, which was tweeted out from the official Nations League Twitter page, appears to show Williams jokingly saying: “Look at these mugs doing the Ayatollah”.

The tweet was later removed. Last night in Tirana, Williams played down the incident, saying it was banter involving Cardiff physio Sean Connelly.

He said: “I think it’s obviously disappointing, but it was not meant how it came out.

“There was a bit of banter between me and Sean Connelly who is a Cardiff physio.

“Apologies if it caused offence to anyone.

“What you can’t see is Sean is stood just in front of the picture, but he’s also in it. We have a lot of banter about that. I’ve got nothing against Cardiff fans, they’re great when they’re with Wales.

“It was probably a bit naive, but in a football team we all have banter. It’s not meant to cause offence, but I understand that there are cameras.

“We’ve had that joke many times in the past and it hasn’t been picked up. It’s unfortunate.”

While the incident angered Cardiff fans over the weeked, Wales boss Ryan Giggs also played down the comments.

He said: “You get that when teams have rivals. Cardiff and Swansea are big rivals.

“It’s something which has been worse in the past. Since I’ve taken over there have never been any problems. Ash has been brilliant for me.

“I don’t want to really see it from either side, we want to all be fans of Wales. I think there are 1,200 fans here in Albania which is amazing. Ash and all the team are very thankful for that.”

Meanwhile Chris Gunter, who will become Wales’ record cap holder tonight, said: “From joining Cardiff at age seven and then leaving, it’s day to day to have jokes about Cardiff and Swansea. I think no questions should be asked of Ash.”