{"id":141569,"date":"2018-06-15T10:59:11","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T10:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/world-cup-2018-fox-apologises-after-robbie-williams-gives-finger\/"},"modified":"2018-06-15T10:59:11","modified_gmt":"2018-06-15T10:59:11","slug":"world-cup-2018-fox-apologises-after-robbie-williams-gives-finger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/world-cup-2018-fox-apologises-after-robbie-williams-gives-finger\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2018: Fox apologises after Robbie Williams gives finger"},"content":{"rendered":"
Image copyright EPA
Image caption UK viewers were not shown Robbie Williams's provocative gesture <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

US broadcaster Fox has apologised to viewers for the offensive gesture Robbie Williams gave during his World Cup opening ceremony performance.<\/p>\n

"As it was broadcast live, we did not know what would happen during [the] performance and we apologise," the network told the Hollywood Reporter.<\/p>\n

Neither the Take That star nor his representatives have explained why he showed his middle finger.<\/p>\n

The incident was not seen by UK viewers but has been widely circulated online.<\/p>\n

ITV had already cut away from the opening ceremony when Williams "flipped the bird" while singing his 2000 track Rock DJ. <\/p>\n

The 44-year-old altered the lyrics from the song, adding the line "But I did this for free" before giving his one-finger salute.<\/p>\n

Media playback is unsupported on your device
Media captionWorld Cup 2018: Best & worst bits as Robbie Williams opens World Cup<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Robbie's gesture, potentially seen by millions around the globe, recalled the middle finger MIA gave to the camera while appearing with Madonna at the 2012 Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

Williams had previously tweeted that he was "very excited to be returning to Russia to perform at the opening of the @FIFAWorldCup".<\/p>\n

Yet he did admit, in an interview with Reuters, that he had been asked not to sing Party Like a Russian, his 2016 song about hedonistic Russian oligarchs.<\/p>\n

The track prompted some Russian media outlets to call for him to be banned from performing in the country.<\/p>\n

Skip Youtube post by Robbie Williams Warning: Third party content may contain adverts Report <\/p>\n

End of Youtube post by Robbie Williams<\/p>\n

\"YoutubeImage Copyright Robbie Williams Robbie Williams Report<\/a><\/noindex> <\/figure>\n

Robbie's performance began with Let Me Entertain You and included his songs Feel and Angels, which he performed with Russian soprano Aida Garifullina.<\/p>\n

It preceded the opening match between Russia and Saudi Arabia, an uneven contest that Russia easily won five goals to nil. <\/p>\n

\"Presentational <\/figure>\n

Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.<\/p>\n

The best way to get news on the go
Download the BBC News App. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright EPAImage caption UK viewers were not shown Robbie Williams's provocative gesture US broadcaster Fox has apologised to viewers for the offensive gesture Robbie Williams gave during his World<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":141570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}