Roger Federer forced to apologize for his Bleed Blue picture

Roger Federer forced to apologize for his Bleed Blue picture: Very few would have expected international Tennis super star Roger Federer to know much about cricket, or follow the sport diligently enough to endorse a team as the world of cricket is battling it out to crown an ODI World Champion with the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. Not because he is closed to sports other than tennis but more because Maria Sharapova the female tennis champion was famously and controversially quoted saying she did not know who Sachin Tendulkar is.

So when the world saw a picture of Roger holding the Indian team Jersey designed for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, everyone’s imagination started turning wild. The caption that the picture had the caption read #BleedBlue in it which further fueled and suggested that the Swiss champion was supporting team India in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.

While this looked less like a goodwill gesture and more of an advertisement, and an attempt to appeal to a larger audience on the part of Nike, it has backfired. So much so that Federer who is presently in Dubai to participate in the Dubai open had to issue an official apology, apologizing to those who felt hurt because of this and he said he does not endorse or support any team which is participating in the ICC event.

It was largely due to the situation his mother who hails from South Africa faced as she was embarrassed when this issue was raised to her following South African teams defeat in the hands of India in their world cup 2015 match.

To clear it out here is what Roger Federer said,”It was more of a Nike thing to be quite honest, “It was a Nike campaign they had because I met some of the Indian players and I had just spent some time in India so they presented the shirt to me.

He further added, “I support South Africa, and everybody knows that. The idea wasn’t to spark any fire and I’m sorry if it did that.” He did agree that he supports the men in a bit and that his following for the sport depends on where he is and what he is doing.

“When I’m in America, definitely not. When I’m in Europe, definitely not. But then when I’m in Australia and here (in the UAE), a little bit sometimes. So it really depends where I am in the world which sport I follow.”

This is the kind of a situation which could have been avoided, as neither hurting the sentiments of a fan nor getting your brand ambassador in a fix. I feel his social media team and even Nike for that matter could have been a bit more sensitive this was certainly avoidable.

Guess who decided to #BleedBlue? pic.twitter.com/gDalqxDrBI

— Nike Cricket (@nikecricket) February 15, 2015