An Australian TV hosting covering the FIFA World Cup who suffered a barrage of online abuse for "over-pronouncing" football players' names has been defended by her co-host today in an emotional on air display.
SBS broadcaster Lucy Zelic has been the target of countless derogatory comments on social media for attempting to correctly pronounce World Cup players names.
Today on-air, her co-host and former Socceroo Craig Foster came to her defence in a speech that caused both presenters to become emotional.
"Having linguistic skills, being multi-lingual is something you should be very proud of. It adds a lot to our coverage, and it's very important," Foster said, as he became choked up.
Zelic appeared touched by the five minute speech Foster gave applauding her efforts to continue the tradition of the multicultural SBS television station - pioneered by legendary Australian sports broadcaster Les Murray.
"Thank you Fos, thank you. It means a lot to me foremost because of the legacy Les put in place, and also the sentiment behind it which is: you're not pronouncing it for anybody other than the nation you're covering and out of respect to them," Zelic said.
SBS is the broadcast network in Australia for the 2018 Russian World Cup.
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