SBS World Cup hosts Lucy Zelić and Craig Foster have responded to a wave of abuse on social media, directed at Zelić for pronouncing the names of football players correctly.
Social media users have labelled her pronunciations "insufferable" and "annoying" alongside other derogatory comments targeting her appearance.
During Monday night’s TV coverage, former Socceroo Foster turned to his colleague to encourage her to continue doing her job the way she has been.
“I know the other day we talked about the stuff with Robbie Kruse [the Socceroos player who has suffered abuse on social media], and I wanted to just touch on this stuff I’ve seen regarding the pronunciations and so on, because I think you’re doing an absolutely fantastic job here,” Foster said.
Foster said he and Zelić had discussed the issue of pronunciation on their way to the tournament in Russia and told the audience why he believed attempting to pronounce a player's name as it would be in their home country was so important.
“That’s what SBS is about. SBS is about respecting every single culture and of course, the way you use the language is the most important way to show respect to someone, their background — through the name," he said.
“If you can’t get someone’s name right it says that you’ve got no regard, you haven’t done the work, you haven’t tried.”
This is the second time Zelić, 31, has hosted the World Cup for SBS after previously covering the A-League.
She wrote at the time about the abuse she suffered on social media during the 2014 Brazil World Cup.
“Get the f**k off my television screen you ugly bimbo,” one person said to her, she revealed.
Another said, “you stupid f**king s**t, what do you know about Portugal?! It’s clear you only got that job because you slept with someone.”
Zelić is the younger sister of former football players Ivan Zelić and Ned Zelić. Their parents moved to Australia from Croatia in the 1960s.
Since the recent criticism about her pronunciations was brought to light, Zelić has received support from viewers and fellow journalists.
During Monday's broadcast, she looked close to tears as she defended herself.
Zelić said pronouncing players' names correctly was a legacy started by late SBS host Les Murray that she wanted to continue, “which is that, you’re not pronouncing it for anybody other than the nation you’re covering,” she said.
“And out of respect to them, you’re pronouncing it for them."
"When I have had Colombians, for example, write to me and say, 'I've been living in Australia for 37 years, constantly having my name mispronounced has always been a difficulty for me, to have it pronounced correctly is really quite touching', that is why we do what we do at SBS," she said.
"It's always been about servicing the minority and about respecting the cultures we have in Australia."
Zelić went on to say that she was “almost pleased” that she has been suffering abuse on social media “because it means that we now have to re-educate a different audience.”
Zelić and Foster's coverage of The World Cup continues on Tuesday night from 11pm (AEST) on SBS, with the Socceroos taking on Peru at midnight.
