BOURNEMOUTH, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 25: An A.F.C Bournemouth fan celebrates during the Barclays Premier League match between A.F.C. Bournemouth and Tottenham Hotspur at Vitality Stadium on October 25, 2015 in Bournemouth, England. (Photo by Alex Broadway/Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur had its way with Bournemouth on Sunday, devouring the Cherries 5-1 to keep the Premier League newcomers just north of the relegation zone.

Things were so bad for Bournemouth this weekend that even the public address announcer got in on the criticism. Or so fans in attendance thought. From Bleacher Report UK:

It seemed as though Bournemouth’s man behind the microphone had been fairly critical of the Cherries during their 5-1 loss to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon, after an apparent gaffe went viral on Twitter.

“F–king unbelievable” and “men against boys” were the choice of words heard throughout the stadium in what seemed, at first glance, to be the PA announcer forgetting to switch his microphone off.

It turns out, the PA announcer is officially off the hook, as the comment wasn’t made by him despite pumping through the stadium loud speakers. That microphone channel, it seems, was accidentally hacked by a Spurs fan named Barnaby Slater, a presenter for the supporter site SpurredOnTV.

Per the BBC, Bournemouth have official absolved their PA man from wrongdoing. Their IT guy…not so much.

Bournemouth have confirmed a conversation containing swearing which was broadcast over their public address system was caused by a Tottenham fan.

Bournemouth said a full investigation was launched following the incident and “preventative measures will be taken to ensure it can be avoided in the future”.

Often, working press using wireless microphones are given specific frequencies to use—or to avoid—for this exact reason, but with more and more “fan media” going to events to file reports, it’s amazing this doesn’t happen more.

Now that people know it can work, it would be shocking if we don’t see it happen again. 

About Dan Levy

Dan Levy has written a lot of words in a lot of places, most recently as the National Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. He was host of The Morning B/Reakaway on Sirius XM's Bleacher Report Radio for the past year, and previously worked at Sporting News and Rutgers University, with a concentration on sports, media and public relations.

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