Manchester United: Premier League club apologise to fan from Northern Ireland for racism allegation

Manchester United has apologised to one of its fans after incorrectly alleging he had been involved in racist abuse.

Ryan Butler was sent an email in April telling him his club membership, ability to book tickets, and access to Old Trafford had been suspended.

The Northern Irishman was informed this action had been taken due to derogatory remarks he had made on social media.

"In this case, we regrettably made a mistake and the ban was revoked. We apologise to Mr Butler," said the club.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, lifelong United fan Mr Butler, from County Armagh, said his initial appeal against the ban had been rejected.

After this, he lodged a GDPR access request, which resulted in him seeing a screenshot of a tweet from an account with the same surname.

"I don't even have Twitter," he told the newspaper.

"They were unwilling to give me any other information than what was shown in that screenshot."

The action to ban six fans was taken by Manchester United on 30 April, over abuse aimed at Tottenham Hotspur forward Son Heung-min.

United said three season ticket holders, two official members and one person on the season ticket waiting list were given suspensions for abuse sent following United's 3-1 win on 11 April.

In response, Manchester United said it had a "zero-tolerance policy against discriminatory abuse and a clear sanctions policy against any fans committing such behaviour".

"We take reasonable steps to verify the identity of those suspected of abuse and everyone sanctioned has the right of appeal," the club said.

"This incident highlights that fact that identifying those responsible for online abuse is made more difficult given social media users are not required to verify their ID.

"We will continue to work with social media platforms to root out abuse and hold the right people accountable."