Bristol Rovers manager Joey Barton apologises for referring to a ‘Holocaust’

"So if anybody was offended by that, I would like to apologise for that. I think the FA were right to write to me and remind me of that.

"You hope to use better analogies in future, but it was certainly with no malice or offence intended to anybody,” he said.

Shoah educators reacted with anger earlier this week after Mr Barton said at the weekend: “I said to the lads during the week, 'the team's almost like musical chairs'.

"Someone gets in and does well but then gets suspended or injured. 

"Someone gets in for a game, does well but then has a Holocaust, a nightmare, an absolute disaster."

In a statement on Monday, Holocaust Educational Trust chief Karen Pollock slammed the “inappropriate comparison” and said that “a bad football match is nothing like the Holocaust.”