In 2004, Green was censured by Ofcom after he made a comment live on-air about Manchester United's Cameroonian midfielder Eric Djemba-Djemba speaking pidgin English with the referee. Green said that Djemba-Djemba was saying "me no cheat" to the referee. A listener complained that it was inappropriate to suggest a black man was unable to speak grammatical English. Green had previously described Manchester City's Chinese defender Sun Jihai as wearing shirt "Number 17 – that'll be the Chicken Chow Mein, then" during a live radio broadcast.