Manchester United fans were not amused as Channel 5 posted a message on Twitter welcoming their team to the Europe League within minutes of the final whistle last night.
The Channel 5 press office tweeted: "A warm welcome to Manchester United to the C5 team ... #europaleague" at 10pm as Reds fans were still coming to terms with the humiliation of being dumped out of the Champions League.
Channel 5 holds the broadcasting rights for the competition which means that United fans will have to tune in to the channel on Thursday evenings next Spring if they want to see the Reds compete with the likes of Metalis Kharkiv or FC Vaslui for the Europa League title.
But while the delight of Channel 5 at the extra ratings was lapped up by rival supporters, the cheeky tweet did not go down well with United fans.
One fan wrote on Twitter: "Are Channel 5 trying to take the p***?" while another supporter, Darren Hoban, added : "Sarcastic f******* t*****" and Sohail Khan wrote: "Worst tweet ever".
Other United fans suggested that they would not be tuning in to see the coverage. One wrote: "we're still not going to watch your crap channel!!" and Kris Knox added: "as if we need another reason to avoid ch5".
The failure of City and United to qualify for the Champions League knock-out stages this season will be a major blow to Sky Sports and ITV, which holds joint broadcasting rights for the competition.
Channel 5 has enjoyed some of its biggest-ever ratings for Europa League matches, with audiences of over 2 million viewers for some games, but earlier this year ITV agreed a three-year deal to take UK coverage of the Europa League away from Channel 5 starting from next season.
