Burnley captain Ben Mee has expressed his disgust at a plane flown over the Clarets’ game against Manchester City displaying a banner with the message ‘white lives matter Burnley’.
It came as the players took a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, as has been the case at games since the Premier League restarted last week.
The Clarets went on to lose the game 5-0 at the Etihad Stadium but that was almost immaterial for Mee, such was his anger at the incident carried out by a “small number” of fans.
“It was a tough night,” the skipper told Sky Sports.
“We can talk about football but there’s something else I want to speak about first, the aeroplane that went over at the beginning of the game.
“I’m ashamed, I’m embarrassed, that a small number of our fans have decided to put that around the stadium. They’ve completely missed the point.
“There’s a group of lads in there who are embarrassed to see that - it’s not what we’re about at all. They’ve missed the point of the whole thing we’re trying to achieve.
“These people need to come into the 21st century and educate themselves as a lot of us do. It does not represent what we’re about, what the club’s about, what the players are about and what the majority of the fans are about for sure.
“It’s a small minority of people and I’m really upset that it happened.”
Mee revealed that the players found out about the stunt moments before the game got under way.
“Literally as we were coming out we heard some whispers it was going to happen,” he said.
“The club tried to stop it. I’ve heard it’s a small number of people that have arranged this and I hope it doesn’t happen again.
“I’m ashamed and I’m upset that it’s associated with our club, with my club, it’s not what we want to see in our game.”
The former Manchester City man hopes the incident will shine a light on what still needs to be when it comes to equality across society.
“I totally condemn it. Hopefully these people can learn and be taught what we’re trying to do and what the Black Lives Matter movement is trying to achieve,” he said.
“The players have pulled together, the majority of fans have pulled together. We want equality in society, in football, everything.
“Whether it be race, religion, gender, LGBTQ community, the players have all pulled together, we want to make a stand against these things.”
Burnley had been quick to condemn the incident with a statement at half-time.
It read: “Burnley Football Club strongly condemns the actions of those responsible for the aircraft and offensive banner that flew over The Etihad Stadium on Monday evening.
“We wish to make it clear that those responsible are not welcome at Turf Moor. 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.
“The club has a proud record of working with all genders, religions and faiths through its award-winning Community scheme, and stands against racism of any kind.
“We are fully behind the Premier League’s Black Lives Matter initiative and, in line with all other Premier League games undertaken since Project Restart, our players and football staff willingly took the knee at kick-off at Manchester City. We apologise unreservedly to the Premier League, to Manchester City and to all those helping to promote Black Lives Matter.”
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