'Disgusted' Burnley vow to 'root out the racists' after fans' 'White Lives Matter' banner stunt

Burnley have vowed to "root out the racists" after being "disgusted" by the 'White Lives Matter' banner flown over the Etihad Stadium on Monday night.

The Lancashire club were quick to condemn the banner, which was flown over the stadium at kick-off to coincide with players on the pitch taking the knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Chief executive Neil Hart told BBC: "As the chief executive of this football club, I was disgusted to sit in the directors' box at the Etihad and see that plane fly over the stadium with what it had on the banner."

The club have promised to issue life bans to anyone involved, and Clarets chairman Mike Garlick told ESPN: "We will root out these racists and I am sure they will be dealt with in due course. We will do whatever we can to make sure justice is done against these people.

"Let's be clear. The plane didn't fly in our name. It has absolutely nothing to do with Burnley Football Club and we absolutely deplore it. But we have to talk about it. We cannot and will not sweep it under the carpet.

"I was at the game and I have been chairman/co-chairman for eight years. I have always been proud to be in that position, but I can tell you that I wasn't proud to be Burnley chairman last night."

Lancashire Police said it was looking into the incident to see whether any criminal offences had taken place.

The Professional Footballers' Association equalities officer Iffy Onuora told the PA news agency that his view was that this could not be defined as a hate crime, but felt the act had "backfired" in any case as it has merely prompted further conversations about the BLM movement.

"I couldn't tell you if it's the definition of a hate crime, that's for other people to say. For me, no.

AP

"I just think it's given people (a chance) to explain about the Black Lives Matter movement. BLM is not meant to supersede any other lives, the fact is all lives matter.

"We know that, that's a given, and that's a truism from now until eternity. What Black Lives Matter represented was a reaction to the fact that, although all lives matter in theory, in practice that hasn't been the case.

"I think the context of it from their point of view is unfortunate is because all it's made it possible to do is for people to double down on why this conversation is important, why these difficult conversations need to keep happening, why this is such an important time and possibly a transformative moment.

"So in that sense I would say it's backfired - we're still having these conversations, it's kept the momentum going of the last few weeks and it's enabled us to keep getting the message out there."

Additional reporting by Press Association.

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