Pointless viewers furious as contestant denied win despite giving 'correct' answer to football question

Viewers have been left been furious after a contestant on Pointless gave a 'correct' answer that was not accepted.

On the Tuesday 10 episode of the BBC one show, Manchester United fan Dexter from Vauxhall was a contestant and he and pal Len looked overjoyed when a football topic came up at the end of the quiz when they were the final team.

The two categories presented to them revolved around the 2022 World Cup, with guest co-host Vick Hope explaining they were looking for names of players who participated in the final in Qatar, or managers of teams who competed in the showpiece.

The duo had 60 seconds to discuss and decide and come up with three answers in the hope that one of them is deemed "pointless". And immediately Dexter was pretty confident to go with Carlos Queiroz, the former United assistant coach who took charge of Iran in the first ever winter World Cup.

However, he struggled with the pronunciation of the former Real Madrid and Portugal boss' surname.

"He used to be at Manchester United but he went up to international management," Dexter said.

"He managed Iran. I hope I've pronounced it correctly but it's roughly that."

Sticking with a United theme, he picked Luke Shaw and David de Gea for the players section even though they needed a French or Argentine player but felt that Queiroz was his best shot for a pointless answer.

Alexander Armstrong put the answers on the board and £2,250 was in the jackpot if one turned out to be pointless - with Dexter having plans to go on the Orient Express with his earnings.

The answer of Queiroz brought an immediate error as the cross flashed up and presenter Hope told the pair: "I'm so, so, sorry about this but it's Carlos Queiroz. We can't accept it because you changed the consonant so the name is just too different."

To make matters worse, Hope confirmed that he would have been pointless.

Although they went home with the pointless trophy, viewers felt huge sympathy for Dexter and Len and believe they should have been given the benefit of doubt.

One fumed: "They knew who he meant though. Harsh."

A second said: "That's really tight. They've done that before on there and thought it was a bit cruel."

A third wrote: "Like a dreadful VAR decision."

Another added: "Jobsworth. Clearly they knew what he said, even if he pronounced wrong!"

A final user commented: "That's utterly ridiculous."

Other available pointless answers included Argentina's winning boss Lionel Scaloni, Cameroon manager Rigobert Song and Tite of Brazil.

A year ago, a woman won the jackpot thanks to her boyfriend's advice to "Just say Henrik Larsson" for any football question - and it came in clutch when she was asked to name a goalscorer from Euro 2000 and the Swede fit the bill.

After celebrating a win, contestant Tasha said: "Basically, my boyfriend Alex is a massive Celtic supporter and he knows I'm rubbish with names and things like that.

"So he said anything football related - he's played for Man U, he's played for Celtic and Barcelona, I think - and he just said, 'Go for Henrik Larsson'."

"And it's paid off!"