Thug behind Burnley’s offensive banner

LONDON. — Burnley fan Jake Hepple has claimed responsibility for flying an offensive banner during their 5-0 thrashing at Manchester City.

In the early moments of Monday night’s English Premiership football defeat at the Etihad Stadium, the Clarets’ first game since the Premier League restart, a plane flew past carrying a message which read, “White lives matter Burnley.”

This occurred just moments after all players had taken the knee at kick-off in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Lancashire club issued a strong statement during half-time and captain Ben Mee was also angered by the incident.

However, Clarets supporter Hepple has refused to apologise and shared a video of the incident on his Facebook page.

Hepple wrote: “I’d like to take this time to apologise .. TO ABSOLUTELY F ** NOBODY!

“It’s now apparently racist to say white lives matter.”

His Facebook account, which also featured an archive selfie with English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, has since disappeared.

The club statement made it clear the perpetrators were not welcome at Turf Moor and would be banned for life if identified.

“We wish to make it clear that those responsible are not welcome at Turf Moor,” it read.

“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.”

Clarets skipper Mee added: “We as a group of players condemn it, we’re ashamed, we’re embarrassed.

“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.” — The Mirror.