JOEY BARTON SUFFERED an embarrassing snub during Burnley’s Championship title celebrations today as the midfielder appeared to miss out on a medal.
Barton had been instrumental in Burnley’s promotion to the Premier League and was voted the club’s player of the year. But the former Manchester City and Newcastle star was left empty-handed when he joined his team-mates at Burnley town hall for the official presentation of the Championship trophy and medals.
The Clarets had been forced to wait to get their hands on the silverware after winning the second tier at Charlton on Saturday following the Football League’s decision not to allow teams to lift the trophy at opposition grounds on the last day of the season.
Sean Dyche’s squad were finally able to hold the real thing this afternoon, but both Barton and Clarets defender James Tarkowski, who were the last players introduced to the crowd, missed out on receiving their winners’ medals due to an administrative blunder.
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It was claimed Football League representatives wanted the last medal to be given to captain Tom Heaton, who was set to lift the trophy, and so they refused to hand Barton a medal.
But on their Twitter account, Burnley officials took the blame, saying: “Burnley Football Club would like to apologise for the mix-up during the medal ceremony. The Football League advised the club that 25 medals were to be presented, but the club put forward 27 players. We would like to apologise to the @football_league for this administrative error and every player will receive one.”
Barton appeared uninterested in lifting the trophy when it was passed around following his snub.
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