Spare a thought for me': £115,000-a-week footballer Rio Ferdinand ridiculed on Twitter after pleading for sympathy from New Year's revellers while stuck in team hotel•Manchester United player in hotel ahead of 4-0 win over Wigan Athletic
•Twitter followers criticise 34-year-old defender for being 'out of touch'
•Ferdinand says later that tweet was a 'joke' and his critics were 'fools'
By Mark Duell
PUBLISHED: 17:11, 2 January 2013 | UPDATED: 17:21, 2 January 2013
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Defender: Rio Ferdinand (pictured last month) asked New Year's revellers to 'spare a thought' for him
Manchester United player Rio Ferdinand has provoked a backlash from football fans after asking New Year’s revellers to 'spare a thought' for him as he had to sleep in his team hotel.
The £115,000-a-week defender said on Twitter on New Year’s Eve: ’While u guys around the world are out celebrating New Year spare a thought for me please...I'll be in the team hotel sleeping!! #LoveTheGame’.
Ferdinand, 34, born in Peckham, south-east London, was in the hotel ahead of United’s 4-0 win over Wigan Athletic at the DW Stadium yesterday, in which he played for 68 minutes to help keep his side top of the Premier League.
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The footballer was lambasted for the post by many of his 3.7million followers on Twitter, with Ben Randall saying: ‘Must be a hard life getting paid more in a week than most earn in a year.’
And another Twitter user, a Liverpool fan named @Scouselikebread, said: 'Will you spare a thought for the rest of the country struggling to make a living while you’re on 80k a week?'
Ferdinand’s post was re-tweeted more than 1,300 times and he later said on Twitter: 'Next time I'll just put #joking on the end of a "joke" tweet for all the fooooooools! Don't make me switch on u....I'm here all night mugs!'
He added that the people saying he was ‘out of touch’ were ‘throwing coins at us the other week’ - a reference to when he was hit on the head by a coin thrown from the crowd in a game last month.
New Year's Eve post: Ferdinand was lambasted for the tweet by many of his 3.7million followers on Twitter
Challenge: Ferdinand (left) vies for the ball with Wigan's Arouna Koné (right) during the Premier League match at the DW Stadium on New Year's Day, around 24 hours after he posted the controversial tweet
Ferdinand was left bleeding from his left eye following the incident in the aftermath of United's injury-time winning goal in their 3-2 victory over Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium last month.
'Next time I'll just put #joking on the end of a "joke" tweet for all the fooooooools! Don't make me switch on u....I'm here all night mugs!'
Rio Ferdinand
The centre-back had humble beginnings as he started playing football on a Peckham estate, before signing for United for £30million from the now-Championship team Leeds United in 2002 - a British transfer record for a defender.
But an eight-month ban for missing a drugs test in 2003 will forever blight his sporting record. So far this season Ferdinand has made 18 appearances for United, accumulating three yellow cards.
A representative for Ferdinand declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline this afternoon
the mealy mouthed brain dead chav bastard 
