Former football player Stan Collymore has been slammed by gay rights groups because of a tweet he posted, in which he referred to diving footballers as ‘fairies’.

Stan Collymore – who played for Liverpool and England – tweeted in reference to the controversial decision to caution Sergio Aguero of Manchester City, after he took a tumble in Southampton’s penalty area on Sunday. Aquero was cautioned with a yellow card during Manchester City’s 3-0 win.

Referencing racehorse Devon Loch – the favourite to win in the Grand National 1956 who inexplicably fell – his tweet used the derogatory term ‘fairies’:

Easiest thing to slaughter a ref. Maybe if they didn’t have so many fairies going down like Devon Lock we’d get less confused decisions.

— Stan Collymore (@StanCollymore) November 30, 2014

Collymore’s remark was immediately challenged by Football v Homophobia, the worldwide initiative opposing homophobia in football, who wrote in response: “Whatever you think about diving, homophobic abuse is unacceptable.”

A spokesperson for the anti-discrimination group Kick It Out said, “Only Stan Collymore himself would be able to clarify what he meant when using the word. There does need to be greater education around the use of such terminology, as ‘fairy’ has historically been used as a slur towards members of the LGBT community. It is important these sensitivities are recognised.”

Earlier this year, Collymore himself was the target of racist abuse on Twitter after criticising former Liverpool player Luiz Suarez of diving.

In response, he tweeted, “I accuse Twitter directly of not doing enough to combat racist/homophobic /sexist hate messages, all of which are illegal in the UK.”