“It completely misses the point of what we’re trying to achieve as a football community.”
Burnley vowed to issue lifetime bans to supporters responsible for a ‘White Lives Matter’ banner flown over the Etihad Stadium on Monday night.
The plane was flown over Manchester City’s stadium shortly after players, coaching staff and match officials had taken a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Black Lives Matter is printed on the back of all shirts for the first 12 matches of the Premier League restart.
Burnley branded the banner “offensive” after it was towed by an aircraft over the stadium and quickly issued a statement apologising.
The club said it apologised “unreservedly to the Premier League, to Manchester City and to all those helping to promote Black Lives Matter”.
“We wish to make it clear that those responsible are not welcome at Turf Moor,” the club said in its statement.
“This, in no way, represents what Burnley Football Club stands for and we will work fully with the authorities to identify those responsible and issue lifetime bans.”
Captain Ben Mee described the club as “ashamed and embarrassed” by the stunt.
“We as a group of players condemn it, we’re ashamed, we’re embarrassed,” he told BBC Radio Five Live.
“It completely misses the point of what we’re trying to achieve as a football community.
“It’s a minority of our supporters, I know I speak for a massive part of our support who distance ourselves from anything like that. It definitely had a massive impact on us to see that in the sky.
“We were embarrassed, disappointed, upset. We are embarrassed that our name was in it. That they tried to attach it to our club. It doesn’t belong anywhere near our club. Fans like that don’t deserve to be around football.”
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