Pardew apologises for rape remark

Alan Pardew will not be invited back on the Match of the Day 2 sofa any time soon after he was yesterday forced to issue an unconditional apology for comparing a tackle by Chelsea's Michael Essien on Sunday to a rape.

The former Reading, West Ham and Charlton manager was describing a challenge by Essien during Chelsea's 1-0 victory over Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on the BBC2 show.

After the Ghana international clattered into City's striker Ched Evans, Pardew said: "He's a strong boy. He knocks him off." His fellow pundit Alan Hansen interjected to say, "he mauls him", before Pardew continued, "he absolutely rapes him". The comment was not spotted at the time by the host Adrian Chiles, Hansen or any of the programme's production staff who, it is understood, thought Pardew had said that Essien "rakes him".

But after receiving 35 complaints from members of the public the BBC yesterday issued a statement that read: "Alan Pardew apologises unconditionally for any offence caused by remarks he made in the Match of the Day 2 programme last night."

The comments were condemned by women's groups. Lee Eggleston, the chairwoman of Rape Crisis England and Wales, said the term was "completely inappropriate". She said: "That something as serious as sexual assault has been misused to describe football is appalling. He has trivialised and undermined the seriousness of rape and anyone who has suffered sexual violence will rightly be angry."

Pardew, whose most recent managerial appointment came to an abrupt end in November when he left Charlton, is not a regular guest on the programme and was called upon on Sunday only because the regular pundit Lee Dixon was ill.

Although no decision has been made on whether to exclude Pardew permanently from the rota of ocassional pundits, insiders said it was safe to assume he would not be appearing on Match of the Day 2 for some time.