Tottenham have lodged a formal complaint to the Premier League about the actions of a reporter working for ESPN Brasil.

Joao Castelo-Branco, who works as an English football correspondent for ESPN, was seen in video footage shared on his personal social media taking part in anti-Tottenham chanting with Arsenal fans in Sao Paulo.

The video was shared on Castelo-Branco’s personal Instagram page as well as an account belonging to an ESPN podcast and has now led to Spurs filing an official complaint against the journalist.

As part of their complaint, Tottenham have asked the Premier League to prevent Castelo-Branco from covering the club in future. That includes attending matches, press conferences and potential interviews.

The exclusions would not affect any other reporter or the broadcaster themselves, with ESPN a Premier League rights holder in the Caribbean and South America.

Castelo-Branco apologised for his actions in an interview with The Times and said the videos had since been removed from both social media accounts.

“I wanted to apologise to the club for the video I recorded with Arsenal fans in Brazil singing a derogatory chant about Tottenham Hotspur,” Castelo-Branco said. “Given my role as a correspondent in the UK, I feel I made a mistake.

“The video was posted on the podcast Instagram page and reproduced on my personal page. I understand it can be offensive to Spurs and Spurs fans and I should have thought more about singing that and the reach it could have.

“ESPN was notified by the Premier League about Tottenham seeing and disliking the post, and we agreed to delete it. Hopefully we can move on, and I will rethink and be more careful with the boundaries of having that persona on the podcast.”