Ireland, Best sorry they showed abs to photographer in a nightclub

Last Saturday, Newcastle lost 4-0 to Stoke. The night before, the injured pair of Stephen Ireland and Leon Best, along with reserve player Stephen Folan had their picture taken in a nightclub that was later posted on Facebook. Even though none of the three were to play against Stoke, this revelation still offended the club and a number of supporters. And, oddly enough, not because they all posed for the photo like The Situation from Jersey Shore.

According to the players, their Friday night at the Tup Tup Palace nightclub (awesome name, by the way) in Newcastle was brief and did not include the consumption of delicious alcohol. On Monday, Ireland and Best even put out an apology on Newcastle's official website:

"Although we had both been ruled out of the game at Stoke, and didn't travel with the team, we realise that going out to a bar was inappropriate ahead of Saturday's game and we fully regret doing so.

"We were asked to have our photograph taken and we removed our shirts as a tongue-in-cheek joke between friends, but of course the resulting coverage in the press suggests a far different night out. Whilst our actions were wrong, neither of us had consumed alcohol and we were out for only a very short period of time.

"However, with the team having an important game at Stoke the following day, we should never have put ourselves or the club in that position."

And their story was backed up by an anonymous staffer at the club that The Mirror claimed to speak to...

A staff member at the city's Tup Tup Palace said: "They pulled their tops up as we have boys here who walk around with theirs off. They were just taking the mick."

The source added the Premier League players were only there for an hour and drank water and Red Bulls.

So, they were there for an hour, there's no evidence of them drinking their faces off and they weren't even going to play the next day. Why should they have to apologize for that? If Newcastle had won 4-0, would anyone have cared? What if they hung out at a children's hospital for an hour, lifting up their shirts and not drinking there? In an age when footballers are regularly cheating on their spouses with prostitutes and literally stumbling out of nightclubs with their pants falling down, how is this anything but commendable?

Getting your picture taken doing an impersonation of The Situation is, however, something that definitely requires a public apology. That's just shameful.