Burger King Russia criticised for offering free burgers for women impregnated by World Cup players

Russia's Burger King brand has been forced to apologise and remove all adverts offering women a large cash prize if they managed to be impregnated by one of the nation's footballers.

The Russian national team are currently exceeding expectations at their own World Cup, scoring eight goals in two matches against Saudi Arabia and Egypt respectively, and comfortably qualifying for the knockout stages.

In a bizarre way of capitalising on this success, the fast food chain in the country offered women the chance to win three million rubles (£35,000) if they could successfully get a Russian footballer to father their child.

The 'competition' was launched on the Burger King Russia Facebook page but, after receiving criticism, was promptly deleted and an apology was offered.

A screenshot of the post was shared on the Russian social media site VK.

Picture: VK

Deadspin has provided a rough translation of the post, which reportedly reads:

Burger King, within the framework of social responsibility, has appointed a reward for girls who get pregnant from the stars of world football.

Each will receive 3 million rubles, and a lifelong supply of Whoppers.

For these girls, it will be possible to get the best football genes, and will lay down the success of the Russian national team on several generations ahead. Forward! We believe in you!

We'd like to think that the use of the phrase "a lifelong supply of Whoppers" indicated that this was some sort of parody story from The Onion.

CNNreports that the original post was flooded with comments from Russians citing it as "insulting". In response, Burger King thanked people for their feedback and apologised.

The Mirror reports that the comment translated as:

We apologise for the statement we made. It turned out to be too insulting. We thank you for the feedback.

Burger King Russia has been widely shared and condemned on social media.

This isn't the first time the Burger King Russia has landed itself in controversy. In 2017, they used the likeness of Diana Shurygina, a rape victim, to promote a buy-one-get-one-free offer.

In addition, this isn't the first time during the World Cup that Russian women have found themselves and their sex lives vilified.

Last month, Tamara Pletnyova, the chairperson of the Duma committee on families, women and children, told Russian women to not have sex with "different races" during the tournament.

HT CNN

More: A 'safe space' for LGBT+ football fans was shut down on eve of World Cup in Russia​