Joey Barton, a former midfielder for England and Manchester City and the current manager of Bristol Rovers, apologized Thursday "if anybody was offended" for his decision to compare his team's recent performance against Newport County to "a Holocaust."
"I'm just going to say there were some comments made after the press conference last week where clearly no offense was meant, but some people have rightly pointed out to me the use of the analogy was not correct," Barton said at a press conference. "The FA wrote to me this week to remind us of our language and communications, and the last thing you want to do is cause offense or upset anybody.