League Two side Grimsby Town have come in for criticism for using a video of Harvey Price in the aftermath of their FA Cup win at Southampton.
The lower-league side, who won promotion up to the fourth tier last season, beat their Premier League opponents thanks to a Gavan Holohan double at St Mary's. They are the lowest-ranked team left in the FA Cup, and have a chance of earning a trip to Wembley if they can shock Brighton in the quarter-finals.
However, their use of TV personality Katie Price's son, who has Prader-Willi syndrome, autism, ADHD and partial blindness, has prompted some angry social media reaction. Grimsby have since deleted the tweet in question. It carried the caption: "Signing off for the night! Enjoy your night, Town fans" along with a video of Harvey in which he says "what a day".
"That’s Grimsby getting hammered," one Twitter user wrote in reply. "Taking the p*** out of disabled people after they win. What a rotten club."
"What are you thinking with this?" asked another, while a third simply replied "Disgusting". "Tweet in very poor taste from account that has such reach," said another.
"The problem when you let youngsters loose on your social media," read one of the more detailed complaints. "This is in extremely poor taste. Will be very interesting to see what the FA says. They either truly believe in inclusiveness and championing disabilities or they tolerate making disabilities a joke."
Grimsby's post comes just days after a misconduct hearing heard Metropolitan Police officers had made derogatory comments about 20-year-old Harvey in a WhatsApp group. Last month it was revealed that Harvey had allegedly been the subject of “inappropriate and derogatory” images shared by a number of officers in a group chat.
TV personality Katie shared an image of a letter, dated January 26, on her Instagram, detailing the alleged misconduct. Alongside the image of the letter, she wrote: “I feel I need to share this hand delivered letter from the Metropolitan Police.
“It’s disgusting that police officers from here have felt the need to laugh and use disgusting content on Harvey by creating a what’s app group (sic). I would attend this court day but I’m away. They need to be named shamed and exposed.”
Mirror Football has contacted Grimsby Town FC for comment. The controversy comes after a groundbreaking victory which made the Mariners the first team from the fourth-tier or below to reach an FA Cup quarter-final since Lincoln City in 2016-17.
"We are absolutely delighted to reach the Quarter Finals of this season’s Emirates FA Cup and make competition history in the process," a board statement on the victory read. "Last night’s 2-1 victory at Premier League Southampton epitomised everything which we have come to expect from Paul Hurst’s team in the last 18 months – it was a performance full of grit, determination and moments of quality which have left memories that will last a lifetime."
