Fundraising website GoFundMe has pulled a campaign to support a Burnley fan who helped organise the ‘White Lives Matter’ banner that was flown over the Etihad Stadium on Monday.
Jake Hepple, 24, claimed responsibility for the stunt, which took place ahead of Burnley’s 5-0 defeat to Manchester City.
Burnley and club captain Ben Mee condemned Hepple’s actions, and he’s also been sacked from his position as a welder with Paradigm Precision in Lancashire.
Two campaigns were set up on crowd funding platform GoFundMe to raise money for Hepple and his girlfriend, Megan Rambadt, who also lost her job.
According to LancsLive, the 'Get behind Jake Hepple and Megan Rambadt' and 'Support Megan Rambadt' campaigns have been pulled as they "violated terms of service".
Quite right, too.
The latter campaign was launched on Wednesday and has raised more than £2,000. Contributors have received their donations back.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Hepple claimed he isn’t racist and didn’t intend to cause offence.
“I'm not racist. I know people are trying to make out to be one but I'm not,” he said.
“I’ve got lots of black and Asian friends and this banner was actually inspired by the Black Lives Movement.
"We were not trying to offend the movement or black people.
"I believe that it's also important to acknowledge that white lives matter too. That's all we were trying to say."