Dutch newspaper apologises after bogus report claiming Johan Cruyff is dead goes viral

Volkskrant apologises to Cruyff and blames 'stupid mistake'

A Dutch newspaper has apologised to Johan Cruyff after bogus report that claimed he was dead went viral (Getty Images)

The Dutch newspaper Volkskrant has apologised to football legend Johan Cruyff after they erroneously published a story that said he had died.

Testing their new online app, the story headlined 'Johan Cruyff deceased' was mistakenly set live and quickly spread across social media before it was noticed and taken down.

Philippe Remarque, the newspaper's editor, called it a “stupid mistake”, and apologised to the former Netherlands captain.

“On behalf of Volkskrant I offer my apologies to Johan Cruyff and anyone who has been upset by this,” he said. “The app was tested this morning with fake stories, and a technician came up with this as a way of testing a major breaking news story. By mistake it appeared with this headline.”

The paper later tweeted: “Due to an error on our new test site, we accidentally published a message about the death of Johan Cruyff. We’re sorry.”