Football fans the globe over are enjoying a chuckle today after the world’s most famous soccer team, Manchester United, copped a roasting during a live sports report on the BBC on Tuesday morning.

During a segment on the French Open, “Manchester United are rubbish” appeared on the ticker at the bottom of the screen.

Apparently the gaffe happened after a trainee at the broadcaster was practicing using the ticker before mistakenly putting the comment live to air.

Later in the bulletin, a presenter was forced to apologise for any offence caused.

The presenter said: “A little earlier, some of you may have noticed something pretty unusual on the ticker that runs along the bottom of the screen with news making a comment about Manchester United, and I hope that Manchester United fans weren’t offended by it.

“Let me just explain what was happening: behind the scenes someone was training to learn how to use the ticker and to put text on the ticker, so they were just writing random things not in earnest and that comment appeared.

“So apologies if you saw that and you were offended and you’re a fan of Manchester United.

“But certainly that was a mistake and it wasn’t meant to appear on the screen. So that was what happened, we just thought we’d better explain that to you.”

BBC brass also offered a formal apology, adding: “There was a technical glitch during training with our test ticker, which rolled over to live programming for a few seconds. We apologised for any offence caused on air.”

As you’d expect, social media had a good laugh at the broadcaster’s expense and the team which finished a distant sixth in this year’s English Premier League.

Said one: “Pep [Guardiola] starting his summer job!” Guardiola is manager of Man United’s arch rivals Manchester City.

Another added: “I really hope the trainee doesn’t feel too bad. Because honestly that mistake was actually legendary and we all salute you.”

Even a Man United fan saw the funny side: “I mean, even as a Man Utd supporter, they’re not wrong.”