24 October 2012 – The Good Funeral Guide

ITV Exposure Responses FPL & NAFD

The following statement was read out after the Exposure programme 24.10.2012

‘Last month in ‘The British Way of Death’ Exposure went under cover in the funeral industry at Funeral Partners Limited revealing racism and disrespect of bodies and the bereaved.

FPL who own the branches in Slough and Tooting, where we’d been filming, have apologised, five people have been sacked, one has resigned and a seventh is currently suspended.

The company says it’s investing in diversity training and will be improving facilities and equipment where needed.

They’ve also offered to reimburse fees paid by a widow who was shown being racially abused at her husband’s funeral.

The NAFD has said that “in the light of the Exposure programme it will begin a root and branch review of its code of practice.” ‘

Strange bedfellows?

The economic crisis in Greece has got so bad that football clubs are having to scour surviving businesses for sponsorship. Reuters reports that:

Palaiopyrgos – many of whose players still attend school – have signed a deal with a funeral home.

“For us it was a matter of survival,” manager Lefteris Vassiliou told Greek radio.

Despite the macabre attire – black jerseys with the undertaker’s logo and a large white cross down the middle – Vassiliou said the players had taken it well, and it had even given them an advantage over their opponents.

Recounting a recent match, he said: “The goalkeeper kept crossing himself, our competitors lost every play. It seems they were too scared to come near us.”

Voukefalas is now sponsored by a brothel and the players now flaunt pink shorts and T-shirts emblazoned with her brothels’ logos, including “Villa Erotica”.

Reuters do not make it clear why readers should suppose there is equivalence between the two sponsors.