LORD SUGAR has come in for strong criticism on social media after an ill-advised 'joke' about the Senegal national team competing at the World Cup.
The Apprentice star posted a picture of the African team alongside pictures of sunglasses laid out on a blanket and another image featuring several handbags.
"I recognise some of these guys from the beach in Marbella. Multi tasking resourceful chaps," he wrote along the image.
However, Lord Sugar's joke fell flat with his followers on Twitter, some of whom were quick to brand the gag as "racist" and insensitive.
"Well this is terrible," one follower wrote while another warned the businessman: "this is not an okay tweet."
"How long until he gets told to apologise for this," someone else wondered aloud, but Lord Sugar refused to back down - at first.
"It's meant to be funny," he claimed in one tweet, later adding "I cant see what I have to apologise for".
Lord Sugar did eventually opt to take the tweet down, though he still struggled to see any issue.
"Just been reading the reaction to my funny tweet about the guy on the beach in Marbella . Seems it has been interpreted in the wrong way as offensive by a few people," he wrote.
"Frankly I cant see that I think it's funny. But I will pull it down if you insist ."
Lord Sugar will return to TV screens for the 14th series of the Apprentice later this year.
