Micah Richards attracted the ire of Manchester City fans with his comments during the BBC's FA Cup coverage.
The 36-year-old, who won the competition with Man City in 2011, was working for the Beeb as a pundit during their coverage of Fulham's last-16 penalty shootout victory over Manchester United.
The defeat for Ruben Amorim's side left the competition with just one Manchester club and no Liverpool in the quarter finals. Liverpool had been knocked out in the previous round by Plymouth Argyle — the side City defeated to secure their passage into the quarter finals.
Chelsea are also out of the competition, having lost to Brighton in the fourth round while Arsenal exited to Manchester United in round three.
During the BBC's coverage, Richards analysed the tournament's landscape and implied that his former club, who have won the last four Premier League titles, weren't among England's heavyweights.
'It's very open now, what a chance for a team to go and win it. All the big teams are out,' he told BBC Sport.
'Manchester City are obviously the strongest team left in there. But this is what we wanted, teams to get a chance.'
Those comments went down poorly with Man City fans with their former defender finding himself at the end of an online backlash.
'Petition to strip Micah Richards of the ‘club ambassador’ role and hand it over to someone who actually cares about Manchester City,' one supporter blasted on X.
'Micah Richards – Not One of US. Hello @ManCity, Get rid of this clown! Zero respect for City, yet still holding the title… @MicahRichards, remove ‘Ambassador’ from your bio! Even Khusanov has a bigger legacy than you at City!' added another.
While a third fan posted: 'someone needs to start a petition to have micah richards dropped as a club ambassador because he certainly does not represent the club in any way shape or form. who is with me?!'
The FA Cup represents City's only chance of silverware this season with the club out of the Champions League, both domestic cups and 20 points behind leaders Liverpool in the Premier League.
Manager Pep Guardiola has insisted his focus is on winning the trophy.
'It’s quite new for us,' said Guardiola. 'In eight or nine years it never happened. That means we are not doing well. We are going to take time off to refresh.
'It’s about quality not quantity. We are going to do training [for a] really important game against Forest. We will refresh things and practice things. Lift the rhythm. Normally when you play every three days you cannot do that.'