UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin slammed for comments made over Sarina Wiegman's trophy

England boss Sarina Wiegman has been crowned as UEFA Women's Coach of the Year for a second season in a row after her success with the national team.

Wiegman has been in charge of the Lionesses since August 2020 and won the European Championships with a 2-1 win against Germany last summer at Wembley.

The Lionesses headed Down Under recently for the 2023 World Cup where they reached the final.

Despite a valiant effort, the Lionesses ultimately lost out to Spain thanks to Olga Carmona's first-half goal, sealing victory in Sydney for the Spanish and heartache for England.

Wiegman has since been awarded with the UEFA Women's Coach of the Year for the second time in a row, following the brilliant work she's done with the Lionesses.

However, when UEFA president Ceferin handed the coaching award over at the ceremony he told Wiegman: "Be careful, it's heavy."

He's attracted criticism for this with people taking to social media to slam Ceferin, with those taking to the platform formerly known as Twitter and now branded X to have their say.

@worksopdanic wrote: "Did you cringe when the UEFA guy passing the best coach trophy to Wiegman warned her how heavy the trophy was? Thought that came across as a poor look."

@haleendfan posted: "Why are men in football so cringey with the women involved in the sport??"

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@PebblesLondon wrote: "Uefa chief slammed for warning Lionesses boss Wiegman her trophy is 'heavy' - - it just gets better - Uefa have said nothing about the controversy, but concerned about a trophy’s weight."

After being handed the award, Weigman also took the opportunity to dedicate the award to the Spanish team that beat her England side in the final.

Wiegman said: "We all know the issues around the Spanish team and it really hurts me as a coach, as a mother of two daughters, as a wife and as a human being.

"The game has grown so much but there's also still a long way to go in women's football and in society.

"I would like to dedicate this award to the Spanish team, the team that played at the World Cup such great football that everyone enjoyed.

"I was going to ask you to give this applause afterwards but this team deserves to be celebrated and deserves to be listened to, and I'm going to give them again a big applause and I hope you will join me."

Topics: England, Sarina Wiegman, UEFA, Fan Reactions

John McDougall